Wow. What a week.
Left home at dumb o'clock on Tuesday, drove to Calais for the 0920 train, had to wait at an Aire on the A16 for my fellow marshals as they got delayed getting to Folkestone. Glad I had the chance to get out of the car for a while and take in the surroundings, including being able to see the famous white cliffs in the distance.
They caught up and aside from a brief stop in Rouen for one of them to refuel their classic Porsche 911 Turbo (of which more later) it was a straight run to Le Mans.
Got to the poste campsite - close to Decathlon and the Relais d'Alsace by the first roundabout on the Mulsanne. Pitched tent, helped setup some of the campsite, went for dinner in the Italian over the road, sat drinking beer in the marquee in the rain and went to bed. Woke up to raindrop water torture - my tent leaked in the torrential non-sun at around 0200!
Got up Weds morning, put shelter over tent, cut a load of brambles off the ground to avoid killing my feet every morning. Went to sign on at the MM stadium, got credentials/overalls/caps etc and it all suddenly felt very very real. Walked the poste territory - all 1200m of it - during the practice sessions. Went to the pub for dinner. Went to bed with my brain blowing up at how close we were to the cars at full speed (if anything really bad happened there, at least I wouldn't have known much about it!).
Had to be on post at 0800 Thursday to cover the morning sessions. Great to 'get my eye in' on the blues and learn some of the local customs, one of which being that things are rather more relaxed than I expected. Sessions are long enough that having the occasional perch on a chair isn't frowned upon or served with immediate dismissal as it would be back home!
Covered the final session of night qualifying, got given the flag radio which was a bit daunting at first as my understanding of French was at that point pretty much that which I had from the last time I learned it back in 1985! Breath further taken away by the outrageous acceleration of the Toyota out of Tertre Rouge (and how much of a hill the entry to the Mulsanne is, which isn't clear from TV at all), especially compared to the GTE Am drivers. Went to bed buzzing.
Friday, day off, went to town to meet some other Brits from other postes, had lunch at the Dallas Diner (which had a surprise in the bathroom!), mooched about, drank beer, got the tram back to the circuit and were treated to an excellent meal by the French marshals and their families from our poste. Much laughter, far too much gin, best sleep I'd had in days.
Saturday: didn't have to be trackside until the recce laps (laps to grid) so took my time in the morning, watched some of the R2LM race from a very privileged position, had lunch and then took up my starting point for the race. 3pm came, race started, concentrated for 3 hours with RLM in my earholes so I could tell what was going on elsewhere. One of the Dempsey Porsches blew a tyre near us, leaving big chunks of debris to be collected. 6pm came, end of shift, back to camp for tea and a sleep before being back out again at the top of the poste for the midnight to 2am shift.
Sunday: the 2 hour midnight shift was just mind-blowing. On radio again, blue flagging, got properly in the zone and came back from that shift with my whole body buzzing with adrenalin. Quick bite to eat, head down for a snooze... woke up at 5am ready to get some early breakfast and head back down the bottom of the poste for the 6am thru 9am shift. Laughed with the whole team at a snail which successfully made it from the middle of the road without being killed (what are the chances of that?)
9am came quickly... and that was that, end of timetable for me. Back to camp for breakfast and a short snooze, packed my stuff away, went out to the crossroads by Decathlon for the end of the race, waved everything we had (flags, arms, legs, hats) at the finishers. Back to camp, finished packing, helped start dismantling the camp, headed off in convoy to try to catch the last shuttle but had to stop when one of the group had an engine problem (in the Porsche) and limped back to the camp. Driver ended up staying overnight to arrange flatbed repatriation for car. Left again, well over an hour late, got to Calais about 15 minutes after they called for the last shuttle but was too late to board. Slept in the car, got on the first train Monday, eventually got home around 1100 and went to sleep almost immediately.
It's going to take me weeks to properly process everything. You lot already know how massive and awesome an event it is, and I now have first-hand experience.
Next year....?
