Page 10 - Wednesday 8th June - Off to the Circuit and T17
I woke up on Wednesday to quite cool temperature and the threat of 'non-sun' during the day. I was up and about pretty early as usual, showered and coffee'd ready for departure for the circuit along with James, Lauren and Tony and Tim, with a stop at the Boulangerie Feuillette for breakfast on the way. James F was still struggling unfortunately, so he stayed at the hotel.
Having splendidly breakfasted, it was off to the circuit. From the Feuillette it is only about a minute in the car to the dual carriageway that runs past the airport and our journey down to Parking Blanc was straightforward enough, arriving there just after 11.30 to be greeted by our very own cheery 'Bicycle Man'! Not only him, but our old friend Pascal was also just arriving, with his son Vincent.
After a bit of a wander around we paid our first visit to check out our seats in T17. I'm guessing (as I can't remember!) that we also signed in with the ACO to get our wristbands before heading to the stand - as we wouldn't have been able to get in there without them (although I still have an inkling that we may have managed to do that yesterday?). There had already been Porsche and Ligier practice sessions and we arrived in time for the first free practice session for the Road to Le Mans cars. The weather had cheered up and the sun was out and we were able to watch the session while also checking out the teams prepping the cars for the first free practice session for the main event at 2 pm.
I'm not entirely sure what happened with my video (on my iPhone) between Tuesday and Wednesday, but having viewed the videos after the event, there was a definite drop in quality, particularly later on Wednesday. I had been videoing on the highest settings which was probably a mistake, especially when the light dropped later. But I must have done something, as they were fine up until Tuesday.
We watched the entire three hour session from the grandstand, with it's handy cafe inside for refreshments, all the time pondering where to watch qualifying from. It is one of the beauties of Le Mans that on the two practice days you can watch the sessions from any of the grandstands with no need for a ticket. The only limitations are for T17 and T18 which are restricted to ACO members and their signed in guests.
