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Le Mans 2009 - The Tourists' Story - Page 7

Moving On.....

 

I was thinking in terms of going down to Tertre Rouge and so began the long walk around behind the paddock, and back up through the Village towards the Dunlop curve. It was as I walked up to the Dunlop bridge that I remembered the new ACO members area just down from there on the inside of the track. I still had plenty of time before I had to meet the others back in the garage rouge, so I went in and signed on and headed on outside again to carry on watching the race. The ACO had taken over quite an expanse of spectator area and it was all very civilised with a bar, seating and so on.

 

Marco Werner has now taken over driving duties in the #2 Audi     The #64 Corvette was still pounding round after the sister #63 car     Peter Kox is driving the #009 Aston Martin Lola     The #33 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola - Xavier Pompidou

 

#26 Bruichladdich Bruneau Radical - Pierre Bruneau     Audi R15 #3 - Timo Bernhard     Nigel Moore in what I suspect was his opening stint in the LNT Ginetta #6 at his first Le Mans at 17 years old....     Nicolas Lapierre slices inside the #70 Porsche in his Oreca     Bruce Jouanny in the #16 Pescarolo Judd

 

Here's a first - the first Bulgarian driver ever to race at Le Mans - Plamen Kralev in the #75 Endurance Asia Team Porsche      Racing Box Lola #30 - Thomas Biagi     Aston Martin Lola #008 - Anthony Davidson     Danny Watts in the #23 Strakka Racing Ginetta

 

Aston Martin Lola #007 - Thomas Enge     Matias Russo in the AF Corse Ferrari #78 he shared with Gimmy Bruni and Luis Companc     The Farnbacher team had jumped ship from Porsche to Ferrari this year...     Oak Racing Pescarolo #35 - Matthieu Lahaie     Andre Lotterer piles on the laps sharing driving duties with Charles Zwolsman in the #14 Audi R10

 

 

The view on the inside of the run underneath the Dunlop bridge was excellent and I managed to get some good photos here despite the ever present debris fencing. In fact, after a while I realised the camera wasn't playing up any more either, so things were definitely looking up!

 

Creation Autosportif Creation #4 - Romain Ianetta     The only non-McInerney in the #96 Virgo Motorsport Ferrari #96 - Michael Vergers     Nicolas Lapierre's father runs the racing school at Magny- Cours....     Quite possibly the most attractive car at Le Mans in 2009. In my opinion. Neel Jani in the #13 Speedy Lola

 

It's impossible to say who's driving the #9 Peugeot, but he's in second place....     #40 Quifel-ASM Ginetta - Miguel Amaral     This is an interersting one, as the helmet doesn't look anything like any of the three helmets for the drivers of this car in the Liste des Engagees.... I'm guessing it's Hideki Noda in the #39 KSM Lola     In the #24 Oak Racing Pescarolo, Jean-Francois Yvon was a veteran of 9 previous races, the first in 1984 in a BMW M1! This was the first time he had raced at Le Mans since 1994     Werner has now moved up to 3rd place in the #2 Audi

 

Team Advanced Engineering Ferrari #81 - Joe Foster     Pescarolo Sport Peugeot #17 - Simon Pagenaud     Mike Newton was making his 7th start at Le Mans in the #25 RML Lola - Tommy Erdos had been his teammate in every race....     Out of the GT2 podium places is Pierre Kaffer in the #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari he shared with Mika Salo and Jaime Melo

 

This was Patrice Goueslard's 15th start at Le Mans and his fourth consecutive race for Luc Alphand's team     A famous helmet with a particular connection to yours truly! Bruno Senna makes his Le Mans debut in the #10 Oreca     Pierre Bruneau has now quit his seat in the #26 Radical and Tim Greaves has taken over the driving duties     #66 Jetalliance Racing Aston Martin DBR9 - Thomas Gruber     Christian Poulsen makes his Le Mans debut in the #31 Team Essex Porsche

 

Seiji Ara is back at the wheel of the #5 Navi Team Goh Porsche     A little difficult to tell, but I do believe this is my first shot of Leo Mansell in the #84 Team Modena Ferrari     #41 GAC Racing Team Zytek - Karin Ojjeh     This was the Luc Alphand team's ninth consecutive Le Mans after a debut in 2001, their best result 3rd in GT1 in 2006

 

The Lizards lead Le Mans (well, GT2, anyway....)     With Patrick Pilet chasing hard in the #76 Imsa Performance Porsche     A Corvette win in the last race for these cars in GT1 was a racing certainty.... well it was a certainty that they weren't going to be troubled by a Lamborghini.......!     Didier Andre scythes past the #81 Ferrari in his Courage Oreca


I carried on snapping away here until about 6.20. I would really have liked to stay here longer (or to have moved down to Tertre Rouge) but I was due to meet the other Tourists back at the cars in the garage rouge at 6.45 and it was still a good 10-15 minutes walk away, so I stashed my camera again and headed off. Typically, as the one least concerned about leaving the circuit, I usually find that I'm the first to arrive at any rendezvous for the purpose and this time was no different. The others eventually arrived and we piled into the cars for the journey back to Le Grand Lucé for dinner and, sadly for me, for what was likely to be a 4-5 hour spell away from the race. Still, traditions are traditions!

 


We had to make quite a detour to get out of the garage rouge this time and we finally arrived back at the hotel an hour or so later. Over the last few years I've been delighted that the food at Le Cheval Blanc, whilst not necessarily of the highest standard, has improved significantly and I assumed that just because the place was under new ownership, there would be no difference - after all, it was the same chef in charge - but I was seriously wrong. The meal was sadly very poor - microwaved seafood in a bag to start with followed by more microwaved fish, supposedly St. Pierre (John Dory). As Ben Elton might have said, a plate of tasteless 'hot' followed by another plate of tasteless 'hot' - and bearing in mind that the John Dory came from the a la carte menu, I was shocked at how poor it was. The only saving grace was that I managed to snag a crême brulée for dessert, but even then there weren't enough of these to cater for the 4 of us who wanted it. And we were virtually the only customers in the restaurant on a Saturday evening, when the chef knew we were due there for dinner well in advance. I can honestly say I wished I'd stayed at the circuit and had a merguez and frites. In all my years eating in France, that was probably the worst meal I've ever had. Come back Madame, all is forgiven.....

 


To miss so much of the race in order for such an unappetising meal was galling and when Ian mentioned heading back to the circuit, I couldn't wait - I was raring to go. It was getting on for 11.30 I suppose by the time I'd collected all my gear for the night and we left, Ian, myself, plus Jeremy and new recruit Phil, keen to see some night racing. So at midnight, over five hours after we left the circuit the previous evening, we finally arrived back again. On this occasion my thoughts went back to my early years at Le Mans in the late 80s, when we ate at the Restaurant des 24 Heures on the Mulsanne, never leaving the circuit at all during the 24 hours. Things change of course, as do people, but my desire to see as much of the race as possible still remains - possibly stronger now than ever before. Unfortunately, agendas vary, and not everyone shares the same Le Mans raison d'etre, which does occasionally lead to some tensions - but more of that later.