Le Mans 2007
The Tourists' Story
The Wonderful Night - Part 2
Everyone had been talking about the changes to the corner and the viewing area at Tertre Rouge on
Ten Tenths – it would have been almost unforgivable not to go down and take a look, even if I was sure that the view for the amateur photographer was likely to be pretty poor – how wrong was I?!
This being my 22ndnight at Le Mans, not being as fit as I once was I’ve become a little more conservative about my night time wanderings. I really must try and lose some weight and get myself a bit fitter for 2008! But it was dry and relatively cool so the walk wasn’t so bad. Of course, I stopped here and there to look for good places to set up the tripod, but soon realised – there just aren’t any left…… On the dawning of this realisation I came to the conclusion as I stood overlooking the Esses that this would be the last year I would bring a tripod. There just wasn’t any point to lugging it around all night just to take a handful of shots, none of which really justified the extra effort. Those famous and evocative light trail shots are now a thing of the distant past for the amateur photographer at Le Mans - there just isn't anywhere left (in my opinion) where you can get those shots any more.
As I walked towards Tertre Rouge, the enormity of the changes, particularly to the spectator area really hit me. I had seen the photographs on the ACO site, but there’s nothing like seeing these things for real. As I had thought, the changes forced spectators to pass inside the circuit, as the view from the outside looked was even poorer than before, but once through the new large well-lit underpass (quite a difference to the old one!) and up onto the banking, I soon realised there was just a chance that I could shoot over the debris fencing. After a few shots I saw there were disabled areas which, because of the concrete base to the railings, would give me about another foot in height – just perfect to lose the fencing altogether!
As many of you know, I’ve have not been a fan of the changes the ACO have made at Le Mans, from the chicanes on the Mulsanne, the run-off areas at Indianapolis (which have ruined the corner for the spectators) to the almost sacrilegious destruction of the quintessential Le Mans view on the run-down to the Esses from the Dunlop Bridge, but here at Tertre Rouge I have to grudgingly admit that the ACO seemed to have finally got it right. The drivers were saying the corner was faster – the lap times supported this and it certainly looked faster to me – and the view for the spectator is (at least) very good indeed. So well done the ACO for thinking of the spectators when designing the changes to the corner.
Time always flies when you’re having fun and I was keen to go up to the Esses on the inside as it appeared that the new spectator banking stretched all the way there as well. Just before 4.30 a.m. with the dawn just beginning to arrive, I found myself in the spectator area on the inside of the Esses, taking pictures through the gap in the fencing that I knew was there (having found it in 2005!).
But I was getting pretty tired by now and I knew that I had a long walk back all the way around from there, past Tertre Rouge again and up to the main spectator areas near the garage rouge, so at 4.50 a.m. I started the walk back. I had hoped to grab some more refreshments when I got back to the Village but there was nothing much to be had. As the light truly came up around 6 a.m., I grabbed myself a cup of that alarmingly strong French coffee which jolts the brain and gives you a brief energy boost! With Ian intending to arrive about 7 a.m., I made the fatal mistake of sitting down and then spending half an hour as a nodding dog, desperately trying to stay awake. I just about succeeded, thanks only to the efforts of the Radio Le Mans team who continued to keep me royally entertained…
Ian arrived with Robert and Jonathan shortly before 7 a.m. and we indulged in another life-saving coffee before walking around to the underpass near Maison Blanche (the existence of which I seemed to have completely forgotten about until then!) and over onto the tribunes. It was turning into a pleasantly warm morning and I took a few more photographs from here, mainly to stop myself from keeling over and falling dead asleep!
It was while we were here on the tribunes that one of the most significant events of the entire race occurred when a wheel fell off the all-conquering #2 Audi of Capello, McNish and Kristensen, so ending that car’s race. I was both disappointed (primarily for Allan McNish) but also encouraged as this gave the chasing pack some hope.
But the time soon came to head back to the car and, as usual, for me this was the most difficult task of the weekend. From the tribunes back to the bottom of the garage rouge is only a 15 minute walk, but when you haven’t slept at all and your legs feel like they belong to someone else, it’s more like a 5 mile yomp……. Soon though we were in the car and on route back to Le Cheval Blanc for breakfast.
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