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By the time
that Ian, Jeremy, Phil and myself made it back onto the tribunes it was about
12.15, so well over a third of the race was now in the past. We watched from
there for about 20 minutes or so until Ian decided
it was time to head back for some sleep, having agreed to come and pick me up
again in the morning - at 8 am. So I said my goodbyes, took a deep breath and
prepared myself for the best 4-5 hours of the year!
Having failed in my goal to get down to Tertre Rouge in
daylight and remembering how good the viewing was from there in '07 and '08, I
was determined to get down to there straight away. I made pretty good time -
setting up for my first photo there at 1.15. The biggest bonus of all of
course, was that it was DRY! I was actually quite surprised at how many
spectators there were still milling around now
well into
the night, tripping over those who had given up the fight against sleep out in
the open with noise levels they wouldn't have contemplated trying to compete
against had they been at home!
I stopped at Tertre Rouge for an hour or so, just
wandering back and forth on the inside of the corner over a hundred yards. I
was very conscious of the time. I desperately wanted to make the most of the
night, knowing that I only had three hours or so in which to do it. By 2.30 I
had moved up to the final right-hander of the Esses where I found a small area
of the track unobscured by fencing. Alas, my efforts with the camera,
unassisted by a tripod this year - I'd finally taken the decision last year to
leave it at home - weren't anything to write home about.....
But time was fast moving on and the night was
two-thirds of the way through and I still hadn't made it back to my perch in the
grandstand. So I began the long walk back up across the Dunlop Bridge (a real
killer for tired legs!) and down through the Village and behind the pits. That
final walk up those incredibly steep steps into T34 very nearly finished me
off! But by 3.20 I was in my seat - well, someone's seat, there wasn't much
competition for places - and snapping away again with what appeared to be a
fully-recovered camera.
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