Le Mans 2010 - Ayse's Story - Page 11
Saturday - Group C's, Tourists and Tenthers.....
With Saturday's on track action beginning with the warmup for the Le Mans cars, there was no opportunity today for the leisurely start we had become used to all week, and we left for the circuit at around 8.30, both James and Tony driving to their places in the Garage Blanc. There we met the first minor glitch of the week, finding that some oaf had parked his car in James's spot. We were still able to park nearby and I think I was more annoyed than James was! But it wasn't on - you pay for your selected spot and then some muppet comes and dumps his car in it....
But from there it was straight across and into the circuit entrance onto the concrete standing area as the Le Mans cars had already made their appearance. One enterprising spectator was even frying bacon there by the fence, making everybody else extremely envious, especially those who had gone without breakfast!
We watched a moderately entertaining Porsche Carrera Cup race on a still greasy circuit - there had been quite a bit of rain in the area overnight - in fact, looking out of the window of my hotel room first thing, the sight of the sopping wet tarmac on race morning was just a little worrying! The Group C race followed the Porsches and it was good to see these lovely cars being peddled rather more quickly than in Thursday's rain sodden qualifying.
It was a shame that the cars seemed to suffer rather a high degree of mechanical frailty though and, bearing in mind the position we watched the race from, the chance to take decent action photos was almost non-existent. It was while this race was on that I had a surprise, the sudden appearance behind me of a group of Tourists! Ian, Martyn, Alan and the others had finally made it to the circuit after a couple of days enjoying what France has to offer other than motor racing! It was great to see them all and after a brief chat we parted company (as James and I needed to make tracks to the Ten Tenths meeting in the Village), hoping that I would at least see Ian back at the circuit as usual, early on Sunday morning.
I finally arrived at the meeting just after 12.20, and even before I could greet the assembled Tenthers, AllonFS insisted on taking the photograph of me that you see here.
You see, I spend a great deal of time and effort on the forum throughout the year persuading people that it definitely isn't going to rain at Le Mans, and here was I standing at the Tenthers meeting wearing a rain jacket! Allon was determined that I shouldn't live that down too quickly. And so, for the sake of posterity, a roll call of those present at the meeting:
Craig, Aysedasi, Tony, Tara, Elaviel, DownfOrce, Kpy, GT6, Mal, Bernard B, Sam Collins, Eon, Bentley 03, Hursty, nobster, C9/89, Batmobile, Vincent, Allon FS, Dani Filth, Dominique, lemansfan, and PascaLM. Missing notables this year were rdjones, GTFour, isynge, KDR, and of course, my former moderating buddy, Fab, who I fear we may well not see at Le Mans again for some time.
It was a great meeting with plenty of good wine and lots of chat and reminiscing. It was especially good to see Ten Tenths founder Craig back at Le Mans - he had taken a little persuading, but in the end he just couldn't say no!
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