Having spent the best part of four hours at Arnage
and Indianapolis, James, Toby and I decided to make the move on to Mulsanne
Corner. In contrast to previous years this was an early move, as by habit
I had always previously stayed at Arnage and Indianapolis until dawn, however as
we hadn't found James F and Ramona and hadn't had any messages, we took the
decision to get going. In truth, we were a little weary of sitting and
standing at Arnage by now and felt that it was time get the circulation going
again with the walk back to the overflow car park where we disturbed Allon's
slumbers, loaded our chairs and bags into the car and set off for Mulsanne.
It was still dark of course when we arrived in a
fairly sparsely populated car park and I know we were walking to the corner
viewing area at about 4.55 am as my first video from there was taken actually as
we walked at that time. We made our way to the viewing area and I was
surprised to find that most of the trees that we used to walk through had now
been cut down, rather sad really. The viewing area still had a fair few
people on it and we set up our chairs to await the dawn.
By hour 14 of the race, both of the Rebellions
were in difficulty (but still running) and the #8 Toyota was rapidly reeling in
the #7, whether on pace or team orders, we didn't know. In the other
classes, there was relatively little to report other than a retirement or two.
We remained at Mulsanne Corner until dawn and
again a video taken as we walked back to the car shows that we left just before
6.30. Ordinarily we might have stayed a little longer, but we were all
feeling pretty weary by now and we felt that an early pit stop back at the hotel
might revitalise us again. So we made our way back, arriving just after 7
am and agreed to rendezvous outside at 8.40 after a wash and brush up and a
change of clothes.
As is always the case by this time, the will to
take loads of photos and video had ebbed somewhat, so the offerings are rather
meagre, although I particularly like the 'walking' videos at the start and the
finish. There's something somehow very entertaining about a stroll through
the French countryside with cars racing past a few metres away... Here are
the five videos I shot -
