Aysedasi's Le Mans

So here we go then... The writing of the story “proper” begins on Tuesday the 27th of June, just over two weeks after returning from France. 

The period following the writing of the prologue saw me making my final preparations including the application of a new Le Mans circuit sticker on the back of my car as  the old one I had since 2018 had got very tatty. I finished packing my bags (with some help from our female cat Mona) on the Sunday evening ready for an early start in the morning. After waking at what I now call “Fin time” (as our male cat wakes me up at about 5:15 am most mornings!), I had a quick cuppa and it was time to say goodbye to Jayne (and the cats!) and I put my bags in the car and set off just before 6:00 o'clock.

Unlike last year when it was pretty dull and damp the weather was fine and sunny and I was soon out of the Forest and onto the M27 heading for Portsmouth. As I settled into this first journey I was very surprised to receive a message together with a photo from James letting me know that he was already in the queue for check-in at the ferry terminal - at 6:30 am. 

All credit to him and Lauren, I really didn't expect him to beat me there - I was still 20 minutes away, but the traffic was relatively light and I arrived and joined the check-in queue at 6:50 am.  There were a lot less cars waiting than I had expected and I was soon on the move only to be pulled into the examination area of Border Control, a first for me. It was very pleasantly and efficiently done; I was asked if I had any drugs or weapons in the car and the officer selected a bag from my boot (my laptop bag) for the X-ray machine and after a check of the metal items in my pockets I was on my way, but not before the officer had drawn her colleagues’ attention to my number plate! I parked up in the second queue and noticed James and Lauren just behind me a few rows over to the left. I had just messaged them to say that I might get on the ferry first when they drove on, but I only had to wait another five minutes and I was driving on as well only half an hour after arriving at the terminal, which must be some kind of record.

Lauren had also done some fairly unique Le Mans 'prep'.......

James and Lauren grabbed a table up in the “Derby” bar on the Normandie.  (I've lost count now of how many times I've travelled across on this ferry since it went into service in 1992). We breakfasted on coffee and croissants and the ferry, which was barely half full, set sail bang on time at 8:15 am.  Unfortunately it wasn't long into the journey before Lauren started to feel the effects of sea sickness which surprised her as it isn't something she normally suffers from, particularly as it was a very smooth crossing. The ferry was due to dock in Caen (Ouistreham) at 3:00 pm so after doing the rounds of the ship, noting that the things for sale in the shop seemed to get more and more expensive (and largely useless!) every year, we checked out the self-service restaurant at 1:00 pm, but there was nothing really appetising, so James I settled on our first ham and cheese baguette of the week. Understandably Lauren didn't indulge... By 2:00 pm I was starting to nod off at the table in the bar so I went outside for some air and to watch the French coast rapidly appear.

We docked pretty much on time and we were down to our cars waiting to disembark at 3:25. James and Lauren drove off just before me and I could see them 9-10 cars ahead of me in the queue. Unlike last year's painfully slow progress through French border control it only took me about 25 minutes to get through and meet up again with James just outside the port. So by just after 4:00 pm (French time now, of course) we were on the road in our small convoy with James leading.  After a small diversion into Caen we were soon off and running on the autoroute. It was a pleasant journey in the bright sunshine.  As tends to be the case in France the autoroute was relatively quiet with little in the way of delays or road works. We took things pretty gently running a few kph under the speed limits as we were in no hurry.  We made a small detour off of the autoroute at Argentan but by 6:00 pm we were at the final péage, just a couple of minutes from the hotel. As to the péages, my windscreen 'bipper' had behaved perfectly on the three occasions that it was called into use - a very handy investment. We did make one final small detour taking the service road into McDonald's instead of the road up to the hotel roundabout, something I've done more than once before! We arrived in the hotel car park at 6:05 pm.

As we arrived we were barely parked up when we were greeted by James F who had clearly been waiting for us to arrive. He had come over to France early to do scrutineering and the Test Day again and it was agreed that he would join us for dinner. We were received like old friends by José the hotel manager and we were soon unpacking our bags in our familiar rooms, room 117 of course for me. This was my 12th stay at the hotel and all bar two of those had been in that same room, it really had become my 'Le Mans home'. It only took me about 20 minutes to unpack and stow my gear as it was such a familiar process. What wasn't quite so familiar was the weather. I've experienced many hot years at Le Mans of course but it had been a fair few years since we had arrived in such wall-to-wall sunshine and the temperature was around 27-28 degrees. I had been keeping an eye on the weather forecasts for quite a while and they had changed over the last couple of weeks however there was now a fairly consistent prediction of temperatures between the mid 20s and low 30s for the whole week.  More ominously heavy thunderstorms were now being forecast for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. If those forecasts were to be believed it was going to be a very wet race weekend.

We had agreed to meet out the front for the trip to the restaurant. When it came to the venue there were no surprises, our choice for the first meal of the trip was Del Arte, the lure of the Vesuvio pizza being too great to resist. James F had decided to walk there as it wasn't very far and we met him in the car park. As far as the meal was concerned the pizza was OK as was the panna cotta that James and I had for dessert, but somehow it didn't seem quite as good as we remembered it from the past when we used to eat there three or four times during the Le Mans week. After our meal we gave James F a lift back to the hotel and James and Lauren went off to their room leaving the two of us to have the belated chat that had been inevitable since the communications that took place after last year's trip. 

James F was aware that his emails had caused real surprise as well as quite a bit of upset in my family part of the group. It was fair to say that this was a conversation that I should have had with James months before but I had put it off because I just didn't feel like discussing the detail at great length. It seemed that the longer I mulled over it (and I mulled over it far too much), the less inclined I felt to talk about it.  Nevertheless we had a long conversation outside in the car park during which explanations were given and views exchanged on either side. The details are frankly not for public consumption here but it was important to have the conversation at least to try and clear the air and 'bury the hatchet' as I had hinted at the end of last year's story. I was conscious that James was annoyed that we hadn't had this conversation earlier but for me it was a case of it being in the past and wanting to move on without it having any significant impact on my enjoyment of Le Mans 2023. The basic conclusion though was that at least we both had the chance to say our piece, even if that fell well short of any agreement about why what happened actually occurred. James F had set out his stall in unequivocal terms after Le Mans 2022 and as a direct result James, Lauren and I (and Allon) had no choice but to go entirely our own way which is really what we had done in 2022 (and largely 2018 and 2019 as well for different reasons), and we were comfortable with that.  We would no doubt see James F from time to time but he was now free to enjoy Le Mans in whatever way he wanted to. To be honest for me there was something really rather sad about the whole business as I had enjoyed James F's company at Le Mans since 2010 but I don't think he truly understood the damage that had been done by his e-mails which effectively put an end to all of that. I guess we all have to move on and what James F needed from the Le Mans trip had obviously changed over the years. For me personally, little had actually changed over the past 12-13 years about the way I wanted to do Le Mans other than the involvement of my family members since 2016, and driving myself to Le Mans since 2018 both of which significantly enhanced my enjoyment of the event.  What happened when we got to discussing Le Mans in 2022 was certainly not at all what I had anticipated but it was obvious that it was now time for us to both to move on and go our separate ways and do Le Mans the way we want to do it.  

That conversation finally concluded and with James F fully aware of our team’s independent position for this year it was off to my room to FaceTime Jayne and try and get some sleep in the heat of the evening which showed no sign of abating.