Aysedasi's Le Mans

Le Mans 2010 - Ayse's Story - Page 10

Friday - It's the Pits: But Still Reaching the Heights......!

So we were now finally on the verge of the Le Mans weekend. As I woke on Friday morning it was astonishing to think that I had already spent five nights in France, whereas in previous years I would normally have been just arriving on the ferry at this time! Once again though the theme of the week, "absolutely no need to rush in the morning" was applied and it was getting on for 10 am before James and I thought of heading to the car. As Julie and Andy were transport-less and as James and I had a number of things to do today connected with either Ten Tenths or Radio Le Mans, we agreed with Tony that we would travel to the circuit separately.

We did have another task to perform however. We had talked of going to the Classic British Welcome event at St Saturnin, not far up the road from Le Mans but we were conscious of the time and the need to be at the circuit for other commitments. We did however need to head out to St Saturnin, as we had promised to give Simon (a.k.a. Tenther GT6) a lift from there to the circuit. When we reached the road leading to the entrance to the event it was clear that it was jam-packed and the idea of getting stuck in that traffic didn't exactly appeal! As it happens, the road was only a few yards from the very pleasant bar in which we had taken coffee the morning before and when James suggested we do the same again, I needed no persuading. After Madame's excellent coffee, croissants and pain au chocolat, we were properly fortified for the journey in. James made contact with Simon and he came out of the Classic British Welcome to meet us for the journey to the circuit.

So once we reached the circuit and parked up in the Garage Blanc we had a bit of a wander around.  I bought myself a Pescarolo ticket lanyard to match the one James had bought on Thursday and we walked around killing time before we met for our pit visit. I think it's fair to say that neither of us had been desperately keen to organise a visit this year, me because of simple inherent laziness (!), and James because of all his hard work with Embassy in 2008 and Speedy Team Sebah last year. But following contact with a friend of mine, the opportunity arose to pay a visit to Drayson Racing, hosted by Lola. So James had done some more sterling liaison to set this up for a select band of Ten Tenths Sports Car/GT Forum regulars.

As usual on Friday, when the pit lane is open from 10 am to 8 pm, the crowds were out in force, with more people in the pits at this time than I seemed to recall in the past, so that they were standing four or five deep all along the front of the pit boxes. We started to assemble opposite the Drayson pit shortly before 12.30, ready for our 1 pm visit.

Those fortunate to be making the visit were myself and James, Dani Filth, GT6, Hursty, DownfOrce, nobster, AllonFS, lemansfan, Kpy, Batmobile, Craig and PascaLM. We each had personalised invitations which James had arranged.

The visit was hosted by Sam Smith, Lola's Communications Manager, but much of the information about the car and the team's progress so far came from Julian Sole, Lola's Chief Engineer. It was a splendid meeting, with Sam and Julian fielding many questions, from the basic to the highly technical. For me the most amusing moment of the visit came up with an impromptu appearance by driver Emanuele Pirro, who Pascal was very keen to obtain an autograph from!

We had the best part of an hour in the pit which all the invited Tenthers seemed to enjoy enormously. I know that everyone was grateful to Drayson Racing and Lola cars for the opportunity, but I'd like to add my specific thanks to James for taking on the organisational role for a third year running, leaving me to occasionally bask in the reflected glory, quite undeservedly!  Time for another Tenther to take on the organiser role for 2011, methinks! 

But the afternoon was far from over for James and I; we had another visit lined up! For some years now I've been itching to get an invite up to the Radio Le Mans studio, perched high above the ACO grandstand. Paul Truswell had been ready to give me a tour last year, but my schedule with the Tourists made that impossible. This year however, everything was arranged and at three o'clock-ish, James and I were with Paul ready for the tour. It was absolutely fascinating stuff - having listened to Paul, John and the other commentators so regularly over the years (including throughout the year thanks to the MP3 downloads of the commentary), to see the studio that they worked from throughout race week was an eye-opener, the fantastic view hopefully making up for the incredibly cramped conditions!

Even though there was no on track action at the time, this was without any doubt at all the highlight of the trip for me. I could have stood up there taking in that amazing view for hours! So a big thank you to Paul for letting me have the opportunity at last. We finally left Paul to get on with his work at about 3.45. What a great day it had been - certainly one of the best I've ever had at Le Mans, and one that I would remember for a very long time.  We returned to the car about 4.15 for the trip back to the hotel, where we had plenty of time to wash and brush up, as well as having a bit of a rest, before meeting back up with Tony, Julie and Andy for dinner - and guess where? Yep, Courtepaille again! And it was just as good as on the Monday and Tuesday. So with the preliminaries largely over, now we rested in preparation for the main event, the 78th running of the world's greatest motor race, the 24 Heures du Mans 2010...