My big, fat racing adventure
Being there

If you’ve seen Steve McQueen’s epic movie LeMans, considered required viewing for all roadracing fans, you have a certain vision of what LeMans will look like. The arriving
part is similar to the movie, through the French countryside of quaint stone houses with flowered windowboxes, fields of vegetables and roads with names like La Rue de Resistance. And the odd very nice kart track. The traffic along the roads, both out of Britain and into France, is streaked with cars that make your tongue hang out. Jags and Astons galore, some with wild, bewinged bodywork. Countless Porsches mild and wild, Ferraris, MGs, Morgans, Loti, Ford Focus RSRs, cool kit cars. Many have large national flags on their hood, and club affiliations or driver and co-driver names on the bodywork! But when you approach the track, the reality of Being There is more. Much more.

The imposing front entrance sits beside the new Museum, and gives the correct impression of a great, classic roadracing venue immediately. Once inside, left and up the sharp slope to the viewing terrace, the first view is of the approach to the Dunlop Bridge. With seats in the Dunlop Grandstand,
just before the famous bridge, we had a birdseye view of the cars just after the massive pits, and the start, where the cars would slow from over 170mph to 70, in an F1-car-like insanely short distance. Comfortable stadium seats were more than we expected.

We arrived just after the Porsche Cup race and right in time for the Classic Group C/GTP race.
250mph coupes piloted by some good and some “gentlemen” drivers. Not a classic race by any means. But the cars were wonderful. The three Silk Cut Jags battled quite closely, chased by an ex-works Mercedes C11, which spun lazily in front of us on the damp start. You could tell he was pissed as he drove banzai laps from the back up to the front. And got a flat tire. After pitting for a new tire, he drove more banzai laps. And spun again. As the race went on, one by one the cars dropped out ‘til there was a winner. Disappointing compared to the 24 hour race to come.

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The tension was palpable (always wanted to say that) as the start approached, each car taking an
“out” lap to warm up the car and make their way to the formal starting grid. As the cars finished their
8.47 mile pace lap and neared the Porsche Curves, streaking Air Force fighter jets flew over with patriotic fervor, the place becoming bedlam as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey played wildly loud on the P.A. system, the French announcer going bonkers as the cars approached, the crowd erupting totally with the cars screaming up to the green flag, the Peugeots leading into the Dunlop Curves and through the Dunlop Bridge in front of us. The Peugeots were soon first through fourth,
easily the fastest cars in the race, streaking away and clearly having the Audi team’s number. The Audis, slower but with a reputation for bullet-proof reliability, would play a strategic game for this race, putting pressure on the lead cars but trying to make it through error-free, with the tactical savvy that had won the previous 9 of 10 LeMans races (with apologies to Audi sister-team Bentley). Disappointment early for American fans as the U.S.-entered Autocon Lola ground to a halt on the opening lap. Another early and disappointing DNF was the Nigel Mansell-and-sons-driven Ginetta, which suffered a slow tire deflation, putting the “Red 5” into the Mulsanne guardrail, with what looked like a slight crash. But the
hit was so hard, in fact, that the Nige had to be lifted out into the ambulance, with a slight concussion.

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