Le Mans 2022 - Ayse's Story
Page 1 - The Prologue
There was always a temptation to start the 2022 story by wittering on again about the last two years and the effects of Covid and my inability to go to Le Mans in 2020 and 2021 but I've already done this at sufficient length in my 'ersatz' stories for those two years and in my blog. which I suspect no-one reads anyway.... You can have too much of a bad thing as well as too much of a good thing. The period since returning from Le Mans in 2019 to date has been pretty eventful for me, the last WEC race at Silverstone, my son Toby crewing at Le Mans for Nielsen in 2020 and Algarve Pro in 2021, my retirement from work of course and more recently our house move after nearly twenty eight years. We arrive at May 2022 as I start to write this prologue, which is unusual in itself, as I rarely commit anything to 'paper' before the race has taken place and I've returned home. Things are looking much better in our lovely new surroundings and I have a trip to Le Mans to look forward to in less than three weeks.
I was determined to make it back to Le Mans in 2022. It seemed such a long time since June 2019 - in one sense - but as I write this, the last year or so feels to have gone very quickly, especially since I had the demoralising experience of watching the last Le Mans on the TV again in 2021. I guess being so busy gearing up for our house move and then settling into our new home has had a significant influence on this, so much so that it has only really been in the last few weeks that my attention has turned to thinking of preparing for Le Mans. My 'standard' Le Mans gear ended up being scattered around cupboards in the new bungalow as well as in the garden cabin and the garage. Now it's just littering the study and the spare bedroom. The camera has been cleaned, my vaccination record is printed and I've supplemented my gear with a few new items such as a new camping chair, and new powerbank and a new dashcam for the car to capture the run around the circuit on Tuesday. I actually bought it after Le Mans 2019 but only tried it for the first time this week! I also had a bit of a scare with the camera as after I cleaned the lenses and tested it, I noticed that it wasn't autofocusing in aperture or shutter priority. After scouring the net I finally came across mention of 'back button focus' and remembered that I'd set this up after the last Le Mans - which explained why the shutter button was no longer performing the autofocus!
Team DoT this year would consist of seven members, James F, Tony and his son Tim (returning for the first time since 2015), Allon, James, Lauren and myself, so there were no Le Mans debutants this year. As always, James F kindly ordered the tickets and our accommodation at our Le Mans hotel. I had booked my ferry crossing way back for June 2020. I made the first amendment when the race was put back to September 2020. The second came when the decision was taken to hold that race behind closed doors. Change #3 occurred when the 2021 race was put back to August and the fourth and final amendment was made after I decided to give the 2021 race a miss. Ironically, having been at Le Mans in both 2020 and 2021 when I wasn't there, Toby would be missing Le Mans this year having parted company with Algarve Pro Racing some months before. Although he is still 'spannering' from time to time, he now works full time for Aston Martin on the Valkyrie. What a shame they pulled the plug on racing it as a Hypercar.
Having enjoyed immensely driving to Le Mans in both 2018 and 2019, it was never in doubt that I would again be driving over in my 125i. Slightly bizarrely then, James F and I would be travelling in convoy, both solo in our two cars, initially at least. James and I were travelling over early on the Thursday in order to catch the two days of scrutineering on Friday and Saturday. Tony and Tim were expected at about midday on Saturday and the four of us would spend the Sunday - the Test Day - at the Auberge des Hunaudiรจres on the Mulsanne Straight, just as James and Tony had done last year (when the circuit wasn't open to the public on the Test Day). My James and Lauren were travelling over on the night boat on Monday evening, arriving with us on Tuesday morning and the final team member Allon would be with us as usual on Thursday morning, dropped off on route to the circuit by Sean.
All was in place then for a fantastic return to Le Mans. The one thing I hadn't packed with me for the journey was a crystal ball....
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