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Le Mans 2009 - The Tourists' Story - Page 2

Friday Arrival & Pits Walkabout

 

The departure from Benouville was quicker than I’d anticipated and from the conversation in Martyn's car I could see an issue already developing over whether we should go direct to the circuit or not. If we did, we would probably arrive earlier than ever before, and that's exactly what happened! Although we stopped for petrol on the outskirts, it soon became clear that Ian didn’t have a "watering stop" in mind before we reached the circuit.  Suited me!

     Arrival at last in the garage rouge at Le Mans!

Jim, Terry, Alan, Nick and Jeff get ready for the day's exertions...     Martyn checks the paperwork....     and Jeremy explains the form to Le Mans first-timer, Phil.

My first photo at the circuit, taken maybe five minutes after we parked in the garage rouge, records the time as 10.50 am. Checking back, we arrived in the garage rouge last year at about 11.30 - so, all in all, we were only about 45 minutes earlier than we were last year.  I had bought my entry ticket before the race weekend so I had the chance to take a few photos while the others bought their tickets.

Time to buy the tickets for Le Mans 2009.....     .....still great value, compared with massively overpriced F1....     ....particularly if you get them in advance like me....     ....I also had a few lanyards from 1st Tickets to share around....

And off into the circuit over that famous Le Mans landmark....     ....the Dunlop Bridge - Nick, Jim, Terry, Jeff, Martyn and Alan arrive at Le Mans....

Soon enough though we were making our way over that familiar walkway from the garage rouge into the circuit. We stopped for a couple of the guys to buy radios from the Radio Le Mans seller, and then headed down through the Village to the very bottom of the paddock where we stopped for a beer.

I suppose it's something to look at - Audi's now outdated static display....

And then it was time to see what radios we had between us....     I was all kitted out in readiness, but others decided to invest in new equipment....     ....after all, you can't be at Le Mans these days without a radio to listen to Radio Le Mans....     Jeremy gets his new radio going....     ....while Ian coughs up the cash for his.

It was while I was waiting here, fidgeting in my keenness to get into the pits that I was approached by a fellow Brit who needed some help as his camera wasn't working. It turned out to be a duff CF card, so I let him have one of my spares. I gave him my website address, but as I write this part of the story, 10 weeks after the end of the race, he hasn't contacted me - disappointing...

Terry     Down at the bottom outside the paddock we find somewhere for that well-earned beer....     Alan     Nick, Jeremy and Phil wait anxiously for the beers to arrive....     Phil

Nick     Jim     All these stops getting in the way of visiting the pits....!!     Jeremy     Marytn

The beer was soon despatched and I couldn't contain my excitement any longer, so I headed towards the pits with the others in tow. We agreed to meet back at the cars at 3.30  and as it was already getting on to 12.25, I wanted to make the most of the time available. The pit lane was predictably packed with fans 4-5 deep in front of the Peugeot and Pescarolo pits. It was a similar sight down the garages at the Lola Aston Martins. Although it was once my annual aim, I've long since given up trying to photograph every car and pit.

And on to the cars!

The first view up the pitlane from the Peugeot pits     RML Lola #25 of Erdos, Dyson and Newton. Qualified 24th     The bonnet from the #72 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette of Alphand, Goueslard and Gregoire. Qualified 35th.     Risi Competizione Ferrari #82 of Salo, Melo and Kaffer. Qualified 40th.     Risi Competizione Ferrari #83 of Krohn, Jonsson and Van de Poele. Qualified 50th.

First of two shots of the #39 KSM Lola Mazda of Noda, De Pourtales and Marsh.     The car was qualified 30th by Noda and started by De Pourtales.     Never a complete car in the pits for the Friday walkabout! Another bonnet - this time of the #64 Corvette of Gavin, Beretta and Fassler. Qualified 32nd.     With the Luc Alphand pit just beyond, here is the nose of the #63 Corvette of O'Connell, Magnussen and Garcia. Qualified 31st.     The nearest pit is that of the #35 Oak Racing Pescarolo Mazda of Lahaye, Ajlani and Moreau. Qualified 28th.

Flying Lizards Porsche #80 of Neiman, Law and Bergmeister.     #24 Pescarolo Mazda of Oak Racing with Nicolet, Hein and Yvon. Qualified 36th.     Qualified on GT2 pole by Bergmeister in 38th place.      Another shot of the #35 pit. The car was qualified by Lahaye and started by Ajlani.     A general pitlane view from the KSM pit, past the Flying Lizards to the Corvettes.

The #97 'Sunderland' Ferrari of BMS Scuderia Italia with Malucelli, Ruberti and Babini. Qualified 42nd.     The view up the pit-lane to 'Audi-Land'.....     Beyond Audi's Le Mans home is the 'Row of Woe', aka the 'Lane of Shame' - the extra row of garages built on by the ACO a couple of years ago which have a reputation for problems for their incumbents!     Team personnel in front of the #5 Team Navi Goh Porsche of Ara, Kunimoto and Maassen. Qualified second in class and 21st overall.      The #89 Hankook-Farnbacher Ferrari of Simonsen, Farnbacher and Montanari. Qualified 47th.

The #66 JetAlliance ('Team Chandelier') Aston Martin of Lichtner-Hoyer, Gruber and Muller. Qualified 34th.     The controversial Audi nose sections lined up in front of the pits.     The timing of the Peugeot protest somehow seemed pretty unfortunate, just as action on the track was about to get under way....     The yellow highlights denote the #1 Audi of Kristensen, McNish and Capello. Qualified 2nd.      And just in case they forget who they are.......

The #41 GAC Zytek of Ojjeh, Gosselin and Peter. Qualified 27th.     The #75 Endurance Asia Porsche of O'Young, Hesnault and Kralev. Qualified 52nd.      Sporting one of the most attractive liveries at Le Mans in 2009, the #75 car gained it's entry to the race on 3rd April, following the withdrawal of the Epsilon Euskadi.      In the foreground, the bodywork of the #32 Zytek of Barazi Epsilon with Barazi, Moseley and Bennett. Qualified 29th.     So attractive those Lola coupes! This is the #30 example of Racing Box with Biagi, Bobbi and Piccini. Qualified 26th.

The #40 Quifel ASM Ginetta Zytek of Amaral, Pla and Smith. Qualified 25th.     Another shot (in the garage this time) of the #32 Barazi Epsilon Zytek, qualified and started by Barazi.     The Bruichladdick Bruneau Radical #26 of Bruneau, Greaves and Rostan.      The Radical was qualified in 33rd place by Rostan who also started it.      Try as I might, I can't distingush the two Kolles Audi R10s from the photos here. I shall therefore assume this is the #14 car of Karthikeyan, Lotterer and Zwolsman. Qualified 14th.

The other Kolles Audi, #15 was the entry for Albers, Bakkerud and Mondini. Qualified 13th.     #96 Virgo Motorsport Ferrari of McInerney, McInerney and Vergers. Qualified 53rd.     A general shot up the pitlane taking in the Barazi Epsilon and Quifel ASM pits....     A wider shot showing the large Friday afternoon 'throng'....     Not an awful lot to see, but these are the two IMSA Performance Matmut team pits - #70 crewed by Felbermayer, Felbermayer and Leitz - qualified 51st and #76 of Pilet, Narac and Long, qualified 43rd.

Looking back to the #31 Team Essex Porsche pit for Elgaard, Collard and Poulsen. Qualified first in class and 20th overall.     The Oreca Aim pits. #11 was crewed by Panis, Lapierre and Ayari and qualified 16th.     While #10 was driven by Ortelli, Senna and Monteiro and qualified 15th.     The Pescarolo pits. To the left, the #16 Pescarolo of Tinseau, Jouanny and Barbosa (qualified 12th) and to the right, the Pescarolo Peugeot #17 of Boullion, Treluyer and Pagenaud which qualified 4th.     The most popular place in the pitlane? I think so! A view of the works Peugeot pits.

The #17 Pescarolo Peugeot split the works cars in qualifying.     The #9 Peugeot Sport Total car driven by Wurz, Brabham and Gene was the slowest of the three works Peugeots in qualiying - 5th place.     While the #8 of Sarrazin, Bourdais and Montagny took pole position.     Another view up the pitlane from the Peugeot pits.     The #6 Team LNT Ginetta Zytek of Moore, Dean and Tomlinson. Qualified 18th.

The #7 Peugeot of Minassian, Klein and Lamy qualified in 3rd place.     Not only did the #8 car take pole, but it's 3 drivers were 1st, 2nd and 4th in the fastest times. Only McNish managed to split them.      Sarrazin set a record of his own in the #8 car - the first driver to take overall pole position in THREE consecutive Le Mans!     From the sublime to the ridiculous - the shame of Le Mans. The #68 JLOC Lamborghini of Apicella, Yogo and Yamagishi.     Better to have had an empty garage than this sham of an entry. Qualified 55th and last, nearly half a minute down on the class pole. That this entry was at Le Mans instead of the WR (and I accept I've never been a real WR fan!) brought shame on the ACO.

From Essex to Modena.... Team Modena that is! The #84 car of Ehret, Mansell and Rusinov. Qualified 49th.     Looking up from here - not so very far from where I would be sitting this time tomorrow!     The #92 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Bell, Kirkaldy and Sugden. Qualified 45th.     The #9 Peugeot contained the French team's only previous (overall) winner - Alexander Wurz.      The #78 AF Corse Ferrari of Bruni, Companc and Russo. Qualified 44th.

I spent a long, long time waiting outside the Creation #4 pit as I'd been in communication with the team's Andy Woolgar for several weeks prior to Le Mans and was even carrying the team's logo on my website and t-shirts. I kept returning to the pit asking for Andy, but was basically ignored. Sadly for me, the team was only interested in it's Speedchills people....     The girls were pretty, I certainly found myself waiting there with only them to look at for a long time!      The #33 Speedy Team Sebah Lola of Kane, Luenberger and Pompidou. Qualified 3rd in class and 23rd overall.     Another shot of the #78 AF Corse Ferrari

I suppose I should be grateful that one of the drivers turned up to ease my boredom....     Vanina Ickx was driving the #4 Creation with Campbell-Walter and Ianetta.     Campbell-Walter qualified the car 19th, the second slowest qualifier in the LMP1 class.

The #83 Risi Competizione car - no doubt hoping for a better run than last year when an accident made it the first retirement of the race.     The RML Lola #25 was definitely one of the best looking cars in the race - but oh, such disappointment - how could the team drop Andy Wallace? - absolutely nuts!!     One time racer Tiff Needell outside the #87 Drayson Racing pit. The Aston Martin running in GT2 for Drayson, Cocker and Franchitti. Qualified 46th.     Another shot up the pitlane from Risi to Corvette.....     The blue sun-strip tells us that this is the #009 Lola Aston Martin of Hall, Kox and Primat

The lovely #13 Speedy Team Sebah Lola Aston Martin of Belicchi, Jani and Prost. Qualified 10th.     The nose from the #008 Lola Aston Martin of Davidson, Turner and Verstappen. Qualified 9th.     Then a series of three shots, for some reason all of bits of the same car - the #009 Lola Aston Martin.....     I'll just mention the #007 car of Charouz, Enge and Mucke, the fastest of the Lolas in qualifying in 8th place.      I guess this is pretty well the ultimate in Le Mans colour-schemes - the cars looked absolutely incredible - and not only that, they were by far the best sounding cars too - how a prototype OUGHT to sound after all those wimpering diesels!