Saturday. Race day.
It was incredible to think that in just a few hours I would have been in France
for a whole week already, and the race hadn't even started yet! As I've
noted in these pages before (ad nauseam, sorry....), race day sees the
excitement build to the maximum but in effect, it's also the start of the
countdown to the end of the Le Mans trip. Still, it has to be a glass half
full rather than half empty situation. (Actually, mostly full really....).
During the race this year Paul Truswell spoke on Radio Le Mans of adding extra
hours to the race to extend the night and I know how he felt. If I could
have added an extra day at this point to enjoy even more of the atmosphere and
build up to this great event, I surely would have!
Having got as decent early
night I woke up at 6 am, but naturally thought better of getting up straight
away, but by 7 I'd had enough sleep and I got myself up and dressed and started
to make the more detailed preparations this time with everything I was going to
need for the next 30 hours, or thereabouts. This included my big warm
coat, hat and gloves. I was determined to stay warm during the night this
year...
We set off for the circuit
just after 10, conscious of warnings from our local friends that it was likely
to be busy around the circuit, particularly as the French President was going to
be there to wave the tricolore at the start this year. But as it so often
happens, the traffic seemed no worse than usual and we arrived in Parking Blanc
at 10.55.
You'll recall that I talked on
the 'Friday page' about the high level of 'parking paranoia' that was in
evidence that day, well guess what? We arrived at our ticketed spot to
find a Porsche team bus dumped in our parking spot. There wasn't a car
park marshal anywhere in sight patrolling or checking tickets. The bus had
a ticket displayed on the screen but it was miles away from where it was
supposed to be parked.
It may not seem much it really
bugs me that an organisation that can be downright anal about parking and other
things when it wants to be can be so flippant about it when it actually matters.
No-one needed to give a monkeys about how people had parked in the rain on
Friday but there were marshals all over the place. Today, when cars
needed to be parked where they were supposed to be, there was no visible
evidence of any steps being taken to make sure people parked where they were
supposed to be.
Fortunately, we've come to
know the main Parking Blanc marshal over the years and we walked back to enlist
his assistance. He sorted us out a space at the back of the first row, but
by the time all of this stupidity had been resolved it was 11.30 and we needed
to get into the circuit to the annual Ten Tenths meeting - and we hadn't let
down the tyres on Porsche's 'cuckoo' van yet......
We went through the underpass
into the inside of the circuit and finally reached the Ten Tenths meeting place
just before midday, by which time the majority of the Tenthers and their friends
were already present. Pascal was of course setting up his trusty table and
soon everyone was tucking into cheeses of all kinds, foie gras, chutneys and of
course an array of beers, wines and spirits, some of the 'rocket fuel' variety.
For a number of years now this alcohol-themed buffet has both bemused and
confused me, as a significant alcohol intake just before the start of the 24
Hours doesn't strike me as an ideal recipe for surviving the race without
sleeping through large parts of it, but more so because over the last 2-3 years
I've become almost entirely tee-total, not because I have a problem with
alcohol, but because alcohol has a problem with me, in that it's a major trigger
for migraines. I've never been a heavy drinker if truth be told, but I've
always enjoyed a beer, a G&T or, more particularly, a calvados, but I've reached
the point now where I'd much rather drink water or soft drinks than endure an
almost immediate migraine which might last for several hours, or worse still,
two or three days.
With thanks to Bernard Brothier
So I tend not to indulge very
much at the meetings these days but instead wander around taking photos of those
present. This year I won't try and list who was there, on the basis that
there are names I don't know, some I fear I've forgotten and in any event, if
you were there, you'll know that without me having to remind you - unless of
course you really did overindulge on the rocket fuel!
When one or two people started
to drift away from the meeting we knew it was time to organise the annual team
photograph and unusually this year, although I took some shots of the
preparation for this, I didn't take a full group photo. Our stalwart
French Tenther and excellent photographer Bernard managed to persuade a
passer-by to do the honours for us and it is therefore his group shot that
appears here. Over the last 2-3 years the meeting has started to finish
later and later and, highly enjoyable though it was, I was keen to get to my
seat in T17 in good time to be able to soak up some of the pre-race atmosphere.
So we set off back to the stands and by 1.30 we were in our seats munching the
obligatory baguettes.
