Aysedasi's Le Mans

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.