[LM24] Le Mans Diary Part 2

[Liz]

TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2002

The sun is out today, and France has been evicted from the World Cup, having fallen 3-0 to Denmark. No one is really disappointed in that except probably the French, although they should have expected it. England will play Nigeria tomorrow, as Nigeria hung on to tie some other team that tried to come back and nearly did, relegating themselves to the second place. If this report seems a bit scattered, keep in mind that I’m listening to the Ireland/Saudi Arabia game, with regular updates for the Germany/Cameroon game (Germany have just scored) on big speakers right beside my desk. The only part of this that is “roughing it” is the dirt floor under my feet and the fact that the showers open tomorrow. (I have had a wash and brush up this afternoon though, as the washrooms are open – the bad news being that the toilets in the ones that are open are the French style that are two footprints and a hole in the floor. Our temporary facilities are nicer.)

We got up later this morning and the sun has been shining since we got up. It’s still breezy and not much higher than 20, but very pleasant and nice to be dry again. The camp is essentially complete now. Noel has wired speakers to the Sky Channel box for broadcast of Radio Le Mans when they start up tomorrow, and we have water in the kitchen (after a fight with a French Marshall who thought we ought to take our hose and run it halfway up the street to a standpipe outside her enclosure. Our friends “Charlie” (whose name we now know is John) and Steve went in and talked to her and for the time being have settled her down. We have also settled the problem of the power going off unexpectedly, by working out which of the plugs to connect straight into. We had run it on a splitter and people kept plugging in and tripping the breakers, which not only keeps shutting off the television but also plays hob with our refrigerator. (Yes, we have a refrigerator – in fact, we have one in the staff room and one spare in the van that can be plugged into the cigarette lighter in the car. As I told you – no expense spared).

You are probably saying by this point, “When is she going to get to the racing?” Well, there hasn’t been much going on at the track yet – as you probably know, Le Mans is run on local roads, and they are not closed off yet in many places. Someone has been working on a Porsche at the nearby pits – we can hear him running the engine through the gears and screaming it up and down the scale – and someone took a Panoz out once on the nearby mile-long airstrip. I was standing up by the not-open-yet washrooms talking to a British man about Laser surgery (he having noticed my glasses were as thick as his) when the unmistakable sound went screaming by on the airport runway just about 100 yards from where we were. “There goes the Panoz,” he said with great satisfaction. I was wearing my Panoz fleece (it having warmed up enough to leave off the decidedly sub fusc jacket) and he spotted it and said, “You’re American!” in a delighted tone that made me think of Biggles in that awful movie from a few years back. I was surprised at the assumption that only Americans support Panoz, but he followed up by asking if I was with the team. I assured him that at this point I was only a fan. We both agreed it was a good thing that Panoz had gone back to the LMP-01 cars and left the 07s to the poor guys at MDB Motorsport who are discovering that the simple replacement of that handbaggy engine they had last year had not solved the problems which caused Mr. Panoz to go back to the old cars (which had promptly beaten the Audis much to their dismay!) and should have been left in the museum to which they had been relegated. Tonight begins scrutineering, but we will probably go up tomorrow to see the bigger cars go through. Wednesday night and evening practice too, so we’ll get a ringside seat for that and I ought to have some marvelous photos for you to go along with tomorrow’s report. Tomorrow I will get my ticket and I hope will be able to go up to the pitlane to see what is going on there. Due to the mess-up with my pitlane tickets this year, I will have to depend on the work I can do before Friday. Although it is possible that one of the “punters” as Noel calls his guests, is going to bring us permits to get into the track proper. Fortunately the showers will open before they get here, as I have the feeling that I’m not in suitable shape to meet people as important as those that are expected.

We will continue this later on, as Ireland have just scored again and it’s time for me to go cheer them on to the second tier at the end of this game!

Ireland has been safely put into the second round, so we took the opportunity to go back to the grocery store for dinner and snacks. They had a nice display of photos of old Le Mans cars including the Rothmans Porsche in the Paris Dakar. I photographed these while Karen was in the electronics shop looking for bits. There were also two Lotus Elans labeled “Agatha” – I only took a photo of one of those.

As I went out, I aimed my camera at photo of the “Good Luck to the French Soccer Team” (who were, as you remember, eliminated today) sign, and a large French security guard jumped in front of me and basically said I could not photograph that sign. I have no idea why. I took a photo of either the sign or the Guard. Either way it’s pretty funny.

Rain began again as we left for the grocery and never really let up. We sat in the staff tent watching TV and drinking beer, going out for a stroll when the rain let up. The place is beginning to fill up – mainly with Brits and Germans. (You can tell there are more Germans because the volume of the fireworks is rising – and being answered by volleys from across the track.)

The facilities in our area are not yet open.

We watched a Busch race and part of the Trans Am and then went to bed for a good night’s sleep.