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The Tourists' Story - 1998

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So by midnight our meal was finished and we were feeling rejuvenated. But what was happening in the race? Well, the two works Porsches were holding court at the front, two laps ahead of the Nielsen R390. Toyota's challenge had crumbled, the cars afflicted (as Toyotas always seem to be) by dodgy gearboxes. The Boutsen car was the only one of the three still in contention, but 4 laps down in 7th place. Pierre and I were both disappointed as we shared the desire to see Toyota win against Porsche (perhaps to make up for the lost victory in 1994, when the "imposter" Dauer Porsche robbed the Japanese team).



Inevitably, I was keen to get back up onto my loft perch for some more light trail shots. The fact that they might end up looking exactly like the light trail shots I took from there last year was entirely immaterial! We spent over an hour up there before taking coffee in the Welcome bar. Then, all of a sudden, and it seemed without any warning at all - it rained! Fortunately, we were under cover, now listening intently to Radio Le Mans to see how the cars were coping with the sudden downpour. The shower lasted about 45 minutes and having given it another 10 minutes to be reasonably sure, Pierre and I headed out of the Welcome area, stopping off at the Dunlop Curve and the Esses, before heading back again to the Village for breakfast at the Grand Marnier crepe stall!



We decided to spend the last hour or so before dawn on the tribunes, where I set up my tripod to catch some of the action in the pits. On the way there, I bought a large aerial photograph taken on Saturday from the Goodyear balloon of the grid just before the off with the intention of hanging it on the wall of my new office when I was promoted in October. (Unfortunately, I didn't get the job - and the less said about the way that I was stitched up the better, it not only cost me a lot of money over the years but it left a very sour taste in my mouth that has never gone away).



As dawn soon arrived, I moved up to the start of the straight and took some slow panned shots as the cars exited the Ford Chicane. One of those shots can be seen above - perhaps my favourite shot in all my years at Le Mans. Of course, the race then took an unexpected twist, with both of the works Porsches hitting problems, overheating for McNish and a trip through the gravel trap for the other car. It meant that both cars lost about half an hour in the pits, thereby allowing the Boutsen Toyota into a 4-lap lead! As you can imagine, Pierre and I were absolutely delighted - a bit of good luck for Toyota for a change!



Pierre and I set off on our travels again, making our way right down to Tertre Rouge, stopping off here and there for plenty more pictures. By about 8.30, we were feeling pretty weary, plus thirsty and hungry, so we stopped off at the bar at the top of the hill at the Esses and took in (slightly stale) ham and emmental baguettes and some good strong coffee. We both knew we couldn't afford to sit down for too long (otherwise we'd be falling asleep!), so we headed back the way we came, listening intently to Radio Le Mans again, having heard the news that the lead Toyota was having more gearbox bothers, enabling the Porsches to home in on it. As a fully paid-up member of the Le Mans "All Night" club, I wasn't feeling so bad, but I knew that Pierre was feeling the pace a little! So we really took our time on the journey back to the garages.



We walked all the way back to the MRI marquee (at the Ford Chicane) for a cold drink (a civilised pee) and even sat down to watch a bit of the race on TV! Somehow that didn't seem terribly exciting so we headed out of the MRI "back door" and settled down on the banking just before the chicane to watch the last hour or so of the race from there (remembering of course that the race had started 2 hours earlier in '98, so finished at 2 pm).



It was while we were there that we heard that the 29 Toyota had stopped with gearbox failure, leaving the two Porsches home free. We were gutted! (As I guess all of the Toyota team were. I just hope that if Toyota ever come back to Le Mans again in the future, they get themselves some decent gearboxes!!).



We now had the long trudge back to the garage bleu to our coach and I was dead to the world in the land of nod even before the coach left the circuit. I didn't wake again until 5.30 pm when we stopped for a bite to eat at Evreux. Once on the boat at Le Havre, we met up with John and Fergus (whoops, haven't mentioned them before, have I?!), who we shared a cabin with both on the way and on the way back.


It was about this time that we discovered that there was a Le Mans video game in the arcade on the boat, so we all headed down for a few laps, during which time we demonstrated why Allan McNish had won Le Mans this year and not one of us!


We got 2 or 3 hours of shut-eye before it was time to get up again and get ready to go down and find our coach. Before long, Pierre and I were on our way back to Southampton to pick up my car.


So that's the story of the "Terrible Twosome" at Le Mans in 1998. We had a fine time.  It had been exhausting, but a lot of fun. Yes, it was a shame that the rest of the Tourists couldn't be with us, but we still enjoyed ourselves. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Roll on 1999!

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