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There was no great rush in the morning, there
seemed little likelihood after a late night that the Tourists would be persuaded
to rush into the circuit for the support races. I just wanted to be there for 11
a.m. for the Ten Tenths meeting.
At breakfast we finally met the new owners of
Le Cheval Blanc – who turned out to be the former chef and his wife -
breakfast was fine although there was no sign of the usual croissants – but at
least the fresh bread was good.
Of course I was still keener than most to get
into the cars and off to the circuit, but we didn't actually get away until 10
a.m., so our arrival back in the garage rouge wasn't until about 10:40.
While we were driving into the circuit, I had a
call from Paul Truswell the Radio Le Mans commentator who I've known for
a number of years now. We had hoped to meet the day before but the need for me
to meet up again with the Tourists in the afternoon unfortunately prevented
this, but this time I met him just inside the paddock, at the "Smoking Dog"
hostelry, where all of the Radio Le Mans commentators and staff are fed.
It was good to see Paul again to exchange news and views for the first time
face-to-face since the Silverstone LMS race the previous September. I was also
able to meet a couple of the RLM pit reporters, Bruce Jones and Graham Tyler (or
was it Nick Damon?). After an hour or so spent chatting and supping coffee with
Paul, I said my farewells and wished him luck for the race and made my way, a
little belatedly to the Ten Tenths meeting which was taking place at the ‘last
tree in the the Village’.
There were quite a few "Tenthers" already there
by the time I showed up. Our French ‘hosts’ Pascal and Bernard were dispensing
wine in their customary way. It's always dangerous to start naming the people at
a meeting like this as it’s quite literally a racing certainty that you'll miss
someone however, here goes:
Allon FS, KDR, Hursty, undoz, Nobster, Bentley
03, Dani Filth, Elaviel, rdjones, KPY, Sam Collins, Batmobile (and his brother),
GT6, GT Four, PascaLM (with son Vincent and daughter Amandine), Fab (with
daughter Cleo?), isynge, Downforce and Bernard B. And me, of course!
The picture below was actually taken by Bernard and is reproduced here with his
kind permission.
From left to right:-
Batmobile, Cleo, GT6, Fab, Vincent, Elaviel,
PascaLM, Amandine, nobster, Dani Filth, undoz, DownF0rce, rdjones, Kpy,
Bentley03, AllonFS, Aysedasi, isynge, Hursty, Stephane, GTFour, Louis and
BernardB.
It was good to meet with everyone again, but much
of the talk was about whether my old friend Fab would make his return, having
been absent from Le Mans since 2005. As time went on and remembering as well
that I had arrived late at the meeting, it seemed increasingly unlikely that Fab
would show up, but low and behold, at 12:20, he suddenly appeared with his
daughter. I know it meant a lot to the other long-standing Tenthers to see him
again, but for me I can honestly say that it really made my Le Mans weekend, and
he promised that he'd be back again in 2010!
And a few general shots....
We needed to get the team photo and I'm indebted
to Bernard B for providing me with the shot that is shown above – I’m afraid that
just this once I was a bit too tired and lazy! It was a very very good Tenths
meeting, I'm not sure of the exact number present, but I suspect we had more
there this year than ever before - long may our meetings continue! But the time
was fast moving on and we needed to get to our various chosen spots for the
final pre-race preparations and the start of the race, so we said our goodbyes
for 2009 and went our separate ways. I headed first in the opposite direction
backup to the Dunlop Chicane in order to buy my now standard jambon baguettes
and some water which would keep me going up in the grandstand for the next three
or four hours.
Having taken a break from the pits grandstand
(aka T34) last year, I had quickly realised my error. Although the view was good
from the Lagache grandstand and was also a nice change, for the amateur
photographer at Le Mans, Lagache and the other grandstands opposite the pits are
frankly hopeless, thanks to the incredibly intrusive and ever present debris
fencing. So there was never any doubt at all that I would be heading back to T34
in 2009. In fact I changed my seating preference (thanks to Brian Sheehan at 1st
Tickets) to nearer the middle of the stand, although I must admit that I was
surprised to find myself in the front row! A seriously great view, but I was a
bit worried about how hot that sun was going to get later in the afternoon.
One of the pre-race highlights for me always used
to be the driver parade along the main straight. The loss of this a couple of
years ago remains a major disappointment for me and has made the buildup to the
start of the race not only much less prolonged but also much less entertaining
than it used to be. All you get now is the cars pushed out into their echelon
formation and then the presentation of the flags and the anthems.
Even the
obligatory Hawaiian Tropic girls had been replaced this year, by the equally
pneumatic "Rusk" girls, who looked exactly the same, aside from their black
outfits. I guess this is an obligatory part of the pre-race festivities, if you
like, but there are times when it seems like just going through the motions….
The pomp and ceremony both speeded up and dumbed-down – I’m beginning to wish we
could go back to the 4 pm start…..
At last the cars moved off and after a few trips
into the pits, they eventually formed
up again for the green flag lap.
With eight or so minutes to go to the race
start, the cars were released behind the pace car. That final lap before the
start of Le Mans seems to take forever and aside from the babble of the
commentators is actually greeted with near silence from the crowd in the
grandstands and on the tribunes - at least until the cars finally reappear from
the Porsche curves and dive through the Ford chicane into the first lap of the
24 Hours for another year.
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