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12 Jun 2019, 07:44 (Ref:3909489) | #351 | ||
The Honourable Mallett
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We're in the terminal.
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12 Jun 2019, 09:42 (Ref:3909500) | #352 | ||
Team Crouton
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See you guys on Saturday if not before!
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280 days...... |
12 Jun 2019, 19:09 (Ref:3909614) | #353 | |
Racer
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 401
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Car all packed and awaiting the arrival of Allon then off on the long drive to Portsmouth ferry port (it will take 10 minutes if I don't rush)
Sean |
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12 Jun 2019, 21:44 (Ref:3909676) | #354 | ||
The Honourable Mallett
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We're sitting in the ACO club on the outside near the Dunlop Bridge. Have to say those LMP1s are seriously awesome to watch.
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13 Jun 2019, 10:17 (Ref:3909761) | #355 | ||
Team Crouton
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Glad you made it Peter!
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280 days...... |
13 Jun 2019, 10:43 (Ref:3909773) | #356 | ||
The Honourable Mallett
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Yup this morning we've been down at the chicane stand, hopefully we can watch some of qually from there this evening. Went out to Tetre Rouge last night.
Just starting to get a flavour of the event and of course my first dose of current prototypes. |
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13 Jun 2019, 10:45 (Ref:3909775) | #357 | ||
Team Crouton
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If you have the mobility, try and get out to Indianapolis and Arnage tonight. Fabulous place to watch from.
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280 days...... |
15 Jun 2019, 08:09 (Ref:3910295) | #358 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 1,442
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It’s sunny!
700 photos already, of the warm-up, from the top of the Dunlop tribune, which I reckon is as glorious a view as there is to be had in motorsports. The speed of the P1s into the chicane is jaw-dropping. Everyone has been friendly and helpful, parking was easy and I had 12 hours sleep in a €45 B&B 20 mins drive away. My first Le Mans is a delight so far! |
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I like taking pictures of cars going round tracks, through forests and up hills. |
15 Jun 2019, 15:06 (Ref:3910566) | #359 | ||
The Honourable Mallett
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Excellent.
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15 Jun 2019, 19:38 (Ref:3911029) | #360 | ||
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Join Date: May 2018
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So, where are the shuttles to Arnage/ Indy/Mulsanne?
I have followed the map to where it says route 7 starts. I can only find the mini train thing route 9. None of the stewards have any idea. Help! |
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I like taking pictures of cars going round tracks, through forests and up hills. |
16 Jun 2019, 04:51 (Ref:3911592) | #361 | ||
The Honourable Mallett
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Yes we have a similar problem. Oh well another 8hrs to go.
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16 Jun 2019, 06:20 (Ref:3911638) | #362 | ||
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Join Date: Aug 1999
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Having heard that there was a new system of shuttles this year I actually made a rare trip out to Mulsanne and Arnage.
We got the number 5 bus from the East entrance over by the tram station to Mulsanne and then it was easier to get decreasingly numbered buses back to Maison Blanche via Arnage and the P Curves. Not sure how good/bad the previous setup was but we didn’t have to do much queueing and the buses came frequently. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
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"Not the pronoun but a player with the unlikely name of Who is on first." |
16 Jun 2019, 07:05 (Ref:3911650) | #363 | ||
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Thank you! I have found shuttle 5! Still took quite some searching, how hard would it be to put up the odd sign! Weird thing is that none of the stewards I have spoken to were even aware that there are shuttles!
Next year I’m buying an Arnage parking ticket and driving there myself. I wasted two hours last night fruitlessly searching for shuttle route 7 and lost the chance to see the cars at night at Arnage/Indy. I hate being a newbie. Motor racing circuits everywhere are terrible at signage and directions and help for first timers. |
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I like taking pictures of cars going round tracks, through forests and up hills. |
16 Jun 2019, 16:01 (Ref:3912213) | #364 | ||
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Join Date: May 2012
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Even I mist the turn to Arnage at night and got lost (very small only one sign in purple). Good thing though, there is always a sign pointing me back to Vert.
Last edited by PascaLM; 18 Jun 2019 at 00:20. Reason: Excessive and inapropriate sentence. |
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Driving my '95 GT2 winner to Le Mans, again and again and again and again and again.... |
16 Jun 2019, 16:48 (Ref:3912218) | #365 | ||
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Truckosaurus’ 5-4-3-2 route was perfect until the organisers randomly stopped shuttle 2 an hour early, leaving me and some equally grumpy fellow Brits to walk back from Porsche Curves, in my case on very sore legs and feet after walking 22 miles in two days! I swear at least 6 of those were hopelessly searching for shuttle stops!
Still, I did see Mulsanne, Arnage/Indianapolis and Porsche Curves. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. On to Nürburgring! |
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I like taking pictures of cars going round tracks, through forests and up hills. |
17 Jun 2019, 09:45 (Ref:3912389) | #366 | ||
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We took our bikes this year and man I wish I had done that before...
It was very easy to go to parts where normally it would take some time to get there. Saw Indianapolis/ Arnage, Porsche curves and so many more. |
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Let's make better mistakes tomorrow! |
17 Jun 2019, 18:44 (Ref:3912490) | #367 | ||
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It's time for the 2020 who's going Andrew
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Driving my '95 GT2 winner to Le Mans, again and again and again and again and again.... |
17 Jun 2019, 18:50 (Ref:3912495) | #368 | ||
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Plenty of time for that in fact just under a year
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17 Jun 2019, 19:18 (Ref:3912504) | #369 | ||
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I just watched the first of the new series of top gear and they played a very very familiar piece of music, nice to hear it just by some one other than radio le mans.
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18 Jun 2019, 03:04 (Ref:3912596) | #370 | ||
The Honourable Mallett
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Having walked ourselves out on the Wednesday by going down the pit straight, then later up to Tertre Rouge, we decided not to push things. Far too much to take in, so we limited ourselves to the pit straight to Dunlop Bridge area on the Saturday then we got access to the outside of Porsche Curves in, on the Sunday morning. We then went back to the Maison Blanche Terrace finishing back at our stand (Benoist) for the final two hours.
As a newbie I found it difficult to differentiate between LMP1 and 2 non hybrids, which meant that following any teams or drivers was frustrating but Andy B's chart did assist in this respect. The GTE Pro battle petered out sadly, with only three contenders and I really don't know why. But nice to see a Ferrari win and the privateer Ford GT win in GTE AM bodes well for the future of a great car. Having learned a lot this year perhaps the next visit will include Indianapolis and Arnage. Also I suspect we will buy two grandstand tickets. |
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18 Jun 2019, 10:52 (Ref:3912642) | #371 | |
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Join Date: Jul 2009
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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....? |
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18 Jun 2019, 11:36 (Ref:3912650) | #372 | ||
The Honourable Mallett
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Great story Greem. Well done for coping with all the pressure. I have a couple of pics on Flickr that may be you, I was looking down from Tetre Rouge to the entry to Mulsanne. https://www.flickr.com/gp/40981912@N03/e3SDsD and https://www.flickr.com/gp/40981912@N03/tV808J
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I've decided to stop reaching out to people. I'm just going to contact them instead. |
18 Jun 2019, 11:42 (Ref:3912651) | #373 | ||
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Quote:
Great shots though! |
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18 Jun 2019, 16:37 (Ref:3912693) | #374 | ||
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Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 1,442
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Things I learned at my first Le Mans:
Parking Blanc was an awesome choice. Easy to navigate to, right by the entrance, designated spot, quiet enough to get some kip in the car. It's not as big as you'd think. With so much of the track being closed to spectators or requiring a bus ride/long walk, most of the crowd is rammed into around 2 miles of track between Ford Chicane and Tetre Rouge. As a result of that... It's insanely crowded. Moving around in the hours before and after the start is very difficult. I felt distinctly uncomfortable a few times. The general admission areas were densely packed, the crowd 5-deep at the fences, the grandstands rammed. The queues are crazy. I counted 80 blokes in a queue for the urinals at one point. 10-deep for food and drink at busy times. Thus... ACO membership is worth it just for the loos and cafe. I had a seat in Tribune 18 and thus access to the better facilities. You also get a better view of the start, though next year I may go for 34 rather than 18 because it looked less rammed. The start ceremony is awesome. The moment the cars started their engines was spine-tingling. The slow two-by-two through Ford chicane was incredible. Loved it. Grandstands are worth it and Dunlop is the best. It's only at start and finish that you need to be in your designated seat The rest of the time you can move around. I shot 700 lovely photos from the top of Dunlop in the very sunny warm-up and similarly had the stand almost to myself after dark. Next year I will get Dunlop, T34 and probably Wollek too. The run from the Dunlop bridge to Tetre Rouge is just as amazing live as on TV. Sooo many angles of cars coming under that bridge. An iconic view! You can get surprisingly close to the cars. At Tetre Rouge, Mulsanne Corner, Arnage and parts of Ford and Dunlop you really are very close. There are other lovely long views - the sweep under Dunlop, the entrance to Mulsanne, up the straight coming towards Indianapolis - to make for a fabulous variety of photo angles. Except that... The fences are annoying. They seemed to be set at exactly the height at which a 5'9" bloke (me!) can't quite shoot over them. I'll take my little step stool next time - it's only an extra foot but that will make all the difference. I made a lot of newbie errors of course, including wasting two hours fruitlessly searching for shuttles, another hour walking down to karting fruitlessly searching for a view and trying to move about at busy times. Next year it will be even more fun. I'm not quite bowled over by the experience, but I'm a tough crowd for a first-timer as I've already done all the other major 24-hour races! But it was terrific and will become even more so as I become more familiar with the quirks. 5,500 photos to sort now. As I have the Nurbrgring 24, Glastonbury and the Goodwood Festival of Speed the next three weekends, there may be a bit of a delay in posting those! |
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I like taking pictures of cars going round tracks, through forests and up hills. |
18 Jun 2019, 17:12 (Ref:3912701) | #375 | ||
Team Crouton
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280 days...... |
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