[LM24] Le Mans Diary Part 5

[Liz]

Saturday, Race Day, dawned bright and sunny, with an announced temperature about 84 F (about 25C). And all around the campsites and in every corner of the track, thoughts of Le Mans are turned to – football. Today is the day of the England v. Denmark World Cup game, and everyone who has no access to radio or television for the 12:30 game is rushing about trying to find a place to watch. In fact, so many people have called Radio Le Mans to beg for information that they have promised to do football commentary while the game is on! No doubt this annoys the few countries that are not football-mad, and considerably upsets the Dutch, who were not part of the World Cup final group this year. (Peter Kox has already said that the eyes of Holland are turned to Le Mans in hopes that the Dutch drivers will salvage a little national pride. Since he is driving the Spyker, I believe he feels a bit like the Saudi Arabian goalkeeper at this point …)

Dinner is early and the marquee is full as the game comes on, and the cars go out for warm-up to a largely empty reception. The English win 3-0 (which is 3-Nil in football talk) and every time they score, there is a chorus of car horns to celebrate. On the way up to the track the English are caroling, “Three Nil, three Nil” to the tune of “The First Nowell” and the Danes look gloomy because they lost and the Germans look gloomy because the English won.

As we walked in a mob up to the track to stake out positions for the start, I noticed that it was quite easy to tell where the majority of the men came from – the really fit men with deep tans and expensive sunglasses are German or Dutch; the sunburnt, out of shape men with the spindly legs are English; the fat, overdressed men with skinny bored wives and petulant children are Americans.

A Canadian man who is part of our group was wearing a Schumacher cap, but he apologized to me and said that he didn’t pay for it (it came with one of his three Ferraris). He also made my day by telling me he’d talked to a colleague in Montreal and Michael was booed all around the circuit during the drivers’ parade at the Canadian Grand Prix. Then he asked me which of the Racing Lines crew (all very English) were my children, which prompted them all to address me as Mom for the rest of the trip.

The Race. Everyone was very anxious to get the race under way. The Spyker started with drama when its fire extinguishing system suddenly went off and had to be trundled back to its garage for emergency repairs to its electrical system, and the 52 Viper suffered a misfire and had to be pushed back also. They both would start from the pitlane and fortunately were able to take the start on the opening lap. The Morgan doesn’t look as if it belongs in this race. It is a car from 50 years ago. But surprisingly it is running fine so far. The MDB Motorsports Formerly Known As Panoz LMP-07 is running, but it was all Didier de Radeguez could do in his pre-race interview to keep from saying “Our car is slower than the ACO Ticket Office and we don’t think it’s going to make it past the second lap.” The No. 11 Panoz rebuild was finished at 2:30 a.m. and it bravely takes its place. At least this year it sounds like a Panoz! We were at the ACO Welcome Centre to watch the cars take off. This year they have put up the fence on the other side of the restaurant, reasoning that they will then get the business for the restaurant and still keep the good viewing spots for the membership. The viewing area is just at Pit Out, and it’s frequently possible to get good pictures of the cars in a slower mode. The noise is tremendous, especially when two Corvettes and three Saleens go by, or the two Panoz cars in tandem. A lot of people comment that the V8 front engine cars “sound like race cars ought to sound.”

As I watched the race I was accompanied by a young British GT driver whose name is Alex Pilgrim. He was very anxious to meet Andy Pilgrim and once he found out that I knew Andy, he was my constant companion in case we should run across him during the weekend. (Unfortunately the only time I did meet up with Andy, Alex was not with me.)

We settled in for a couple of hours to watch the cars go round, and were soon joined by a dozen Dutchmen who apparently belonged to a club whose main purpose was drinking vast quantities of alcohol and supporting Jan Lammers in the Racing for Holland Dome. Every time he came by they all stood up and gave him a big cheer and a rather ragged wave, which was very funny. Lammers was driving as if Le Mans was a sprint race and was surprisingly fast. The MGs and the Prodrive Ferrari were also driving like maniacs, drag racing down the Mulsanne Straight – yes, the Prodrive Ferrari is in fact that fast. There were a lot of people who believed Enge, Rydell and Menu were overdriving it and it would be lucky to last the night, but I know from experience that when a car is that fast, it is impossible not to simply cast such thoughts to the wind.

We headed back to the campsite for dinner, and actually you can see quite a lot from the right vantage point as the track is only 40 yards from our marquee. This means that conversations are three or four words and a pause for the field to pass, then a few more words … but after awhile we get used to the pattern and can pick out the cars by ear.

The best race is the one developing between the Alex Job Racing guys. Sascha and Jorge are in the Freisinger Motorsports No. 80, and Lucas and Timo are in the No. 81 Racer’s Group car. When Lucas is driving, the gap grows to as much as 77 seconds; when Kevin Buckler (who is older than Lucas and Timo combined) gets into the car (they have to let him drive, because it’s his car) the gap disappears and if Sascha is in the 80 car he surges ahead. Sascha is faster than Timo and Kevin, and Lucas is fastest of all. The cars keep on each other’s tails throughout the race. After the first 4 hours, the Freisinger car is leading GT; Lucas laps about 10 seconds faster than the Freisinger drivers, but neither Timo nor Kevin can sustain his pace.

We headed up to the track after dinner and watched the race on the big screen near the Champagne Tent. This one is difficult to see because a lot of the people watching are not sober and tend to stand right square in front of you because they can’t tell which of the people they see is actually there! Spyker has a gearbox change; more cars come in with punctures; and at 11:45 there is a major fire on the Mulsanne which proves to be the KnightHawk MG Lola. So at midnight with the safety car out, I have to get some sleep, so I bid Alex and Duncan (his cousin) goodbye and go off to bed.

Strangely enough, the actual race is not difficult to sleep through, but on two occasions there were long safety-car periods and nobody could sleep through that. The track got very quiet for what seems a long time, and then suddenly there was the sustained roar not unlike that heard on an aircraft carrier when all the planes take off at once. The first safety car period was due to the No. 18 Courage spreading oil from one end of Indianapolis to the other; the second one was due to the Prodrive Ferrari catching fire and burning up (no injuries in either case). It was a bad enough fire to need the flatbed truck to get the remains back to the garages, leaving the way clear for Corvette and one determined Viper. The Saleens are still running, although the 66 car had to be gutted and rebuilt due to gearbox and engine troubles; they are hampered by ballast and other restrictions and that is making their race largely a matter of finishing.

By dawn almost half the cars are out of the race.

[FG1]

Originally posted by Liz

he was my constant companion in case we should run across him during the weekend. (Unfortunately the only time I did meet up with Andy, Alex was not with me.)

Not an entirely constant companion then!

A very enjoyable read Liz, well done and thanks.

[Liz]

I met up with Andy just before I met up with Alex, actually!