Aysedasi's Le Mans

Le Mans 2013 - Ayse's Story

Page 17 - Sunday

Arnage on Race Night -

Cold and Wet - But Still a Great Place to Be!

So we left T17 and headed back to James' car for the trip out to Arnage.  At 2 am-ish, the traffic wasn't too bad at all and we arrived at Arnage around 2.10.  Despite the fact that we had a parking ticket for Arnage and Mulsanne, we weren't able to get into the first of the car parks so had to park a little way away.  This was my cue to adopt my Le Mans night 'attire'!  Out came the thermal long-johns, thick socks and jumper.  I had learned my lesson in 2011 when it was bitterly cold during the night at Arnage and Mulsanne and I was taking no chances at all!

I think we were all beginning to feel 'it' in our legs.  I had tweaked a muscle in my leg on the stepped banking on the outside of Dunlop on the way down to Tertre Rouge a few hours previously so the walk was even more tiring than usual.  What with the delay to get changed and then the walk, we didn't actually make it into the corner enclosure until 2.50 pm, when the challenge became one of finding some kind of vantage point from which I could take some photos and video.

For as long as I can remember now, I have tried valiantly to take photographs at night at Le Mans, despite the fact that every year virtually every shot I take is pretty miserable.  But I just carry on in the hope that one day - one day - I'll get one truly great shot.  Well, sadly it didn't happen in 2013 and having stripped out the real dross, you see here what I was left with.  Thirteen measly photographs!  If this is what I'm prepared to keep, you can imagine how bad the shots were that I disposed of!  Still, better luck next year - I'll never learn!

It was cold (but nowhere near as cold as in 2011), and it was drizzling off and on and if I'd been anywhere else but at Le Mans, I'd probably have felt pretty miserable, what with the safety car intervening what seemed like every ten minutes.  But this was Le Mans, in the middle of the night - in fact the last few hours of it - and I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. 

We stayed at Arnage until dawn broke - by which time my camera had long since been confined to my rucksack.  We headed back to the cars and set off for Mulsanne Corner at about 5.45 am.