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And so,
finally, we made it to race day. It seemed to come around a lot quicker
this year, having only been at Le Mans since Tuesday afternoon compared with our
Sunday afternoon arrival in 2010. There was no great rush this morning as
we'd already decided not to dash to the circuit for the warm-up at 9 am, so we
had no particular plans other than the Ten Tenths meeting at around midday.
James and I
set off for the circuit before Tony and Tim and when we arrived in the garage
blanc there was an immediate problem - a car parked in our numbered spot.
The driver was still there sitting in his car and he explained that he was only
there as there was a motorhome in his spot - the next one along. He told
us that the owner of the motorhome had bunged some euros to the car park marshal
to let him park there but when challenged by the fellow now in our bay, he had
promised he would be back in an hour, without fail. It all sounded pretty
dubious to me, but the fellow seemed a decent sort so as we still weren't in any
great hurry, we stayed there chatting for a while. Not much choice really
until we could get parked! Somewhat to my surprise, the occupants of the
motorhome returned as promised after their hour and moved it, allowing our
friend and James to move the two cars to where they were supposed to be.
So by the time of my first photo at 10.50, all was sorted. And no sooner
were we done than Tony and Tim arrived to take up their spot, oblivious to what
had gone on before!
From the car
park it was a gentle stroll into the circuit and then up behind the stands and
through the Dunlop Chicane underpass before walking up through the first part of
the Village in search of our new Ten Tenths tree. Sadly, since 2010, the tree at which the
Tenthers had met for several years had not only been cut down but completely
erased - there was absolutely no sign of a stump left. So we'd had to
find ourselves a new tree. In one sense fortunately (but only that one
sense) there were now relatively few trees left in the Village to choose from
and it wasn't difficult to work out which tree the Ten Tenths meeting
'co-ordinator' Pascal had chosen.
James, Tony,
Tim and I were the first to arrive and we found a good spot to wait - near the
tree but out of the way of the crowds walking through the Village. It was
also close enough to the track to possibly catch sight of the Mazda which we
understood might be making another appearance this morning in the hands of
Johnny Herbert - hopefully running a bit faster than Mr. Dempsey managed to
pedal it on Thursday!
It wasn't
long before we were joined by another Tenther, Simon aka GT6 and daughter Elaviel,
followed in short order by lemansfan, Dani Filth and Batmobile. Bernard B
was next to show with his friend Dominique (our Audi pit video benefactor) and
his rather camera-shy girlfriend.
And then the 'co-ordinator' himself
arrived, Pascal (PascaLM). Pascal had done us all proud by bringing along
with him some magnificent goose foie gras and that, along with his and
Batmobile's wine, Bernard's marvellous Pineau des Charentes and Dani's Romanian
rocket fuel really got the meeting into full swing!
Next to arrive was Le
Mans 'virgin' Rob Blanshard, all the way from Texas and we were able to enjoy
his very obvious passion, enthusiasm and overflowing joy at actually being at Le Mans - a
genuinely touching moment I think for both James and I - old hands as we are!
    
Before long
the 'party' was joined by more regulars, Kpy, Mal, nobster and Pascal's son and
daughter Vincent and Amandine , plus photographer GiGav whose superb camera work
is to be seen in his 'Autodrome' collaborations with Sam Collins.
    
It was a
really great meeting, punctuated by 2-3 laps of the Mazda with Johnny Herbert
thankfully giving the iconic orange and green car some decent welly this time!
For me, this was definitely the best Ten Tenths meeting yet, even though it
might not have been the largest, member-wise.
As always, we
raised a glass to 'absent friends', who on this occasion included AllonFS,
Hursty, Craig, sscollins, C9/89, rdjones, Kdr and of course my former moderating
buddy, Fab. It would be good to see some of these guys back at Le Mans in
2012.
I think we
managed to get the team photos before people started to wander off to take up
their positions for the start of the race. As it was, having said our
farewells and thank-yous for another year particularly to our ever-generous hosts
Eric, Bernard and Pascal and after heading back through the underpass and around
into our grandstand (with another pause for the ever-present emmental and jambon baguettes!), we
finally took up our seats at 2.25, with only just over half an hour to go before
the start. So it may not have been the largest ever Ten Tenths meeting,
but it was probably the longest!
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