I was now reasonably keen
to move on and out of T34 - I needed to stretch my legs if nothing else -
and about 7.15 James let me know that he and Tony were on their way up to
the Dunlop Bridge and we agreed to meet in the ACO members enclosure just
after 7.30. Despite the nuisance of the long walk out of the stand and down
to the bottom of the paddock and then back up the perimeter road, it didn't
take me long to get there and find James and Tony waiting at the members
enclosure. We were all feeling a bit peckish by this time and we
indulged in hotdogs for dinner - a far cry from my usual Saturday evening
fare but with all due respect to the Tourists, it was still better than my
evening meal at this time last year! I hoped the chef had upped his
game for them in 2010!
Satisfied for the moment
we were keen to get back to the action and walked down on the inside of the
circuit to the bottom of the Esses and then on to Tertre Rouge, which seemed
to be an ever present lure! I took my first race day picture at Tertre Rouge
at just after 8:30 pm.
It was brilliant to
watch from here, but despite that, leaving aside a few rather drunk French
teenagers, it wasn't as packed as I would have expected it to be at this
time. I particularly noticed how blindingly quick the Peugeots were through
the corner, seeming to leave everything else in their wake. We stayed here
for another hour and a half or so, during which the temperature dropped
markedly. When I'd taken up my seat in T34 some seven hours earlier, I
packed up my waterproof jacket, not really expecting to need to use it
again. But I was still just in trousers and t-shirt and I was really
beginning to feel the nip in the evening air, so much so that I had to put
on the jacket again, just to give me another layer against the cold.
Unfortunately though, my
shots from Tertre Rouge weren't as good as I'd hoped so the pickings are a
little slimmer than usual - and some of those aren't entirely well focussed
- I blame it on cold hands!
We knew that Julia and
Andy were at the circuit now and were keen to meet up with us again so we
arranged a rendezvous in the usual place, the ACO enclosure. I must admit
that I was beginning to tire and despite the desire to stay watching it was
good to sit down out of the cool air and rest my legs while watching the
race on the screens inside the enclosure. By this time I was also watching
the screens quite closely on the Kangaroo TV, fascinated by the progress of
the #1 Peugeot after its earlier delay. Sadly it turned out to be a story of
underachievement for some of our favourite teams, such as Rebellion and
Drayson, the saving grace being Strakka Racing, whose HPD had taken LMP2 by
the scruff of the neck.