Aysedasi's Le Mans

Le Mans 2008

The Tourists' Story

Into the Grandstand - and Le Mans 2008 is Under Way!

It was good to meet some old buddies again, particularly for Allon, who had missed Le Mans last year due to ill health. But soon our meeting time ran out and with the start time now fixed for 3 pm instead of the former traditional time of 4 pm, it was time to head off to our grandstand seats as the pre-race preparations were clearly well under way. So I’m looking forward to seeing you all again in 2009, Ten-Tenthers!

It was of course lunchtime already on the Le Mans Saturday and therefore time to hit the merguez! So Allon and I bought our sandwich merguez Americaine – a large baguette filled with two gorgeous merguez and French fries – plus something to drink before heading off to our seats in the grandstand. The only other time I had sat in the Lagache grandstand was in 2002 (although I’m not sure it was called that then) but from 2003 to 2007 I had made the pits grandstand, aka ‘T34’ my pre-race home. But I’d decided it was time for a change in 2008 and Allon and I bought Lagache seats – if you’re not sure which that is, Lagache is the grandstand to the right of the main ACO stand, as you look across the track to the pits. The stand had the advantage of having a pretty good view across the track to the Peugeot pits.

We soon settled in our seats (mine was Esc 5, Rang J, Place 109) enjoying our lunch and I started snapping away as the cars went through their final preparations in their echelon line. It was when Allon went off to take another look at the shops that one of the most amusing incidents of the weekend occurred. I was sitting there minding my own business when two people arrived claiming that I (and Allon) were sitting in their seats. It turned out that we were sitting in the wrong row, having mistaken the French ‘G’ for our row ‘J’! So we ended up in seats with a slightly better view three rows further up! Allon was rather surprised when he returned from his shopping trip…..

Of course, one of the things I had forgotten since I last sat in the stands opposite the pits in 2002 was just how intrusive the debris fencing was. Still, I took the pictures so they might as well see the light of day!

Time pressed on, particularly now that the pre-race parade has sadly been abandoned (see the 2007 story) and soon the pitlane was opened and the cars were released. As usual I was following the race on Radio Le Mans and not having managed to meet him this year before the race, I sent commentator Paul Truswell a good luck message for the 24 hours which was about to begin.

With the race start now permanently fixed at 3 pm (instead of the old traditional 4 pm), the start soon arrived and the great battle between Audi and Peugeot began. The view from the grandstand was good enough but as soon as I sat down I was reminded of just how hopeless the debris fencing along that side of the straight is for photography. I still believe that the view from T34 is as good a view as you can get anywhere as a spectator at Le Mans.

While we were still in the stand, there was an accident between the #12 Charouz (Muscle Milk) Lola and the #41 Trading Performance Zytek of Ojjeh, Gosselin and Sharpe. The Zytek ended up off the track at the Ford Chicane where it was promptly retired. The Lola lived to fight on - well, for a while, anyway! Here is the sequence of shots I took of the incident and the aftermath in the pits for the Lola.

Allon and I remained in the stand until about 4.50 pm at which point we decided it was time to move on. We walked around behind the grandstands and up past the Dunlop Curve. We exchanged some banter there with some Danish fans who naturally enough, were supporting ‘TK’, also known as 7-time winner Tom Kristensen. We made the mistake of pulling their legs about McNish being behind the lead Peugeot when all of a sudden, all three Peugeots stumbled allowing the McNish, Capello and Kristensen Audi into the lead.

We walked on down past the Dunlop Bridge and down the hill past the Esses to Tertre Rouge as Allon was keen to see the new re-profiled corner. Having missed Le Mans in 2007, this was Allon’s first sight of the revised corner and spectator areas.

We remained at Tertre Rouge taking photos of the cars until about 6.30, but knowing that we needed to be back to the cars for 7 pm for the trip back for dinner at Le Grand Lucé we soon began the walk back to the garage rouge.