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Le Mans 2009 - The Tourists' Story - Page 5

Tenthers Time - a Great Surprise - and Pre-Race in T34

 

There was no great rush in the morning, there seemed little likelihood after a late night that the Tourists would be persuaded to rush into the circuit for the support races. I just wanted to be there for 11 a.m. for the Ten Tenths meeting.

 

It seems strange not to see the usual face behind the bar at Le Cheval Blanc after so many years.....     Martyn holds court at the breakfast table while Ian snaps our new hosts....     This was actually well into breakfast as Jeremy and Phil have returned from their early morning adventure....     'It was this high' says Nick.  No, I've no idea what he was talking about.....!     Of course, by this time, I was itching to get to the circuit.....

 

At breakfast we finally met the new owners of Le Cheval Blanc – who turned out to be the former chef and his wife - breakfast was fine although there was no sign of the usual croissants – but at least the fresh bread was good.

 

After his exciting adventures at the hands of Aston Martin last year, lucky Jeremy had already done several laps of the circuit this morning, by the time this picture was taken.  Even luckier Phil - his Le Mans debut and he gets to go around the track - on raceday!!!     Being Tourists, the menu is always an important thing to note....     The familiar frontage of the Hotel Restaurant Le Cheval Blanc.

 

Of course I was still keener than most to get into the cars and off to the circuit, but we didn't actually get away until 10 a.m., so our arrival back in the garage rouge wasn't until about 10:40.

While we were driving into the circuit, I had a call from Paul Truswell the Radio Le Mans commentator who I've known for a number of years now. We had hoped to meet the day before but the need for me to meet up again with the Tourists in the afternoon unfortunately prevented this, but this time I met him just inside the paddock, at the "Smoking Dog" hostelry, where all of the Radio Le Mans commentators and staff are fed.

Paul Truswell, Radio Le Mans commentator since 1988     I've known Paul for a number of years now, since he spotted me as a like-minded soul as far as Le Mans is concerned - in other words, another Le Mans anorak!     Paul and I have another thing in common at Le Mans - we stay awake all through it - actually Paul stays with it longer than I do, with the time before and after the race, but I do a lot of walking that he doesn't!!

It was good to see Paul again to exchange news and views for the first time face-to-face since the Silverstone LMS race the previous September. I was also able to meet a couple of the RLM pit reporters, Bruce Jones and Graham Tyler (or was it Nick Damon?). After an hour or so spent chatting and supping coffee with Paul, I said my farewells and wished him luck for the race and made my way, a little belatedly to the Ten Tenths meeting which was taking place at the ‘last tree in the the Village’.

There were quite a few "Tenthers" already there by the time I showed up. Our French ‘hosts’ Pascal and Bernard were dispensing wine in their customary way. It's always dangerous to start naming the people at a meeting like this as it’s quite literally a racing certainty that you'll miss someone however, here goes:

Allon FS, KDR, Hursty, undoz, Nobster, Bentley 03, Dani Filth, Elaviel, rdjones, KPY, Sam Collins, Batmobile (and his brother), GT6, GT Four, PascaLM (with son Vincent and daughter Amandine), Fab (with daughter Cleo?), isynge, Downforce and Bernard B.  And me, of course!  The picture below was actually taken by Bernard and is reproduced here with his kind permission.

From left to right:-

Batmobile, Cleo, GT6, Fab, Vincent, Elaviel, PascaLM, Amandine, nobster, Dani Filth, undoz, DownF0rce, rdjones, Kpy, Bentley03, AllonFS, Aysedasi, isynge, Hursty, Stephane, GTFour, Louis and BernardB.

 

My good friend Kdr, one of the Tenthers actually at work at Le Mans.....     Batmobile's brother, Stéphane.     Sorry, no idea at all who these guys are - although I think they might have been friends of Sam Collins....     ss_collins (aka Sam Collins)     Bernard B

GTFour     GT6     Kpy     That man Bernard again - the most photogenic Tenther?!     nobster

Our chief meeting organiser - PascaLM     I hope I have this right -I believe this is Pascal's daughter Amandine     Down F0rce     undoz     Hursty

AllonFS     Bentley03     Elaviel     GT6 again.....     rdjones

It was good to meet with everyone again, but much of the talk was about whether my old friend Fab would make his return, having been absent from Le Mans since 2005. As time went on and remembering as well that I had arrived late at the meeting, it seemed increasingly unlikely that Fab would show up, but low and behold, at 12:20, he suddenly appeared with his daughter. I know it meant a lot to the other long-standing Tenthers to see him again, but for me I can honestly say that it really made my Le Mans weekend, and he promised that he'd be back again in 2010!

And here he is, such a great influence for so long at Ten Tenths - Monsieur Fab!     This was Fab's first Le Mans since 2005     It was fair to say that Fab was an extremely welcome visitor to Le Mans 2009     It seems a long time now since Fab was one of the very first correspondents on my website back in 2001......

And a few general shots....

              

We needed to get the team photo and I'm indebted to Bernard B for providing me with the shot that is shown above – I’m afraid that just this once I was a bit too tired and lazy! It was a very very good Tenths meeting, I'm not sure of the exact number present, but I suspect we had more there this year than ever before - long may our meetings continue! But the time was fast moving on and we needed to get to our various chosen spots for the final pre-race preparations and the start of the race, so we said our goodbyes for 2009 and went our separate ways. I headed first in the opposite direction backup to the Dunlop Chicane in order to buy my now standard jambon baguettes and some water which would keep me going up in the grandstand for the next three or four hours.

Having taken a break from the pits grandstand (aka T34) last year, I had quickly realised my error. Although the view was good from the Lagache grandstand and was also a nice change, for the amateur photographer at Le Mans, Lagache and the other grandstands opposite the pits are frankly hopeless, thanks to the incredibly intrusive and ever present debris fencing. So there was never any doubt at all that I would be heading back to T34 in 2009. In fact I changed my seating preference (thanks to Brian Sheehan at 1st Tickets) to nearer the middle of the stand, although I must admit that I was surprised to find myself in the front row! A seriously great view, but I was a bit worried about how hot that sun was going to get later in the afternoon.

Team LNT Ginetta Zytek #6 of Dean, Tomlinson and Moore.  Qualified 18th.       A general shot of the 'pretty people' milling around with the workers (the photographers and marshals) on the grid     The Navi Team Goh Porsche #5 of Kunimoto, Ara and Maassen.  Qualified 21st.     The Signature Plus Courage-Oreca #12 of Mailleux, Andre and Ragues.  Qualified 22nd.

The blue car in this shot is the GAC Racing Zytek #41 of Ojjeh, Gosselin and Peter.  Qualified 27th.       Another closer shot of the #6 Ginetta     The pink and black Oak Racing Pescarolo Mazda #35 of Moreau, Ajlani and Lahaye qualified 28th     The start is getting ever nearer as the girls arrive on the grid with their position boards

The Team Essex Porsche #31 of Elgaard, Poulsen and Collard.  Qualified 20th and 1st in LMP2     The Creation girls get the kind of close look at the #4 car that I was led to believe I was going to get during the Friday walkabout!!  The car of Campbell-Walter, Ianetta and Ickx which qualified 19th     The #25 RML Lola Mazda would be the mount of Erdos, Newton and Dyson.  It was a great shame (to me) to find Andy Wallace missing from the car after 3 years with the team.  Qualified 24th     As the mirror surrounds appear to be black, I'm guessing that this is the #11 Oreca of Panis, Lapiere and Ayari which qualified 16th

Down in Lola Aston Martin land we see the #008 and #007 cars of Davidson, Turner and Verstappen and Enge, Charouz and Mucke, respectively.  Qualified 10th and 8th.     I'm not entirely sure who these ladies were with but they brought some colourful hair to the pitlane for sure!       Another shot of the #25 RML Lola, qualified by Tommy Erdos     The Corvette Racing Corvette #63 of Magnussen, O'Connell and Garcia qualified 31st and 1st in the GT1 class

 

One of the pre-race highlights for me always used to be the driver parade along the main straight. The loss of this a couple of years ago remains a major disappointment for me and has made the buildup to the start of the race not only much less prolonged but also much less entertaining than it used to be. All you get now is the cars pushed out into their echelon formation and then the presentation of the flags and the anthems.

There may have been no Hawaiian Tropic girls this year, but the Rusk girls looked pretty much the same......     .....having changed the traditional red to black.  Their appearance was, I guess, inevitable.       Even Miss France 2009 got in on the action.....!!

Even the obligatory Hawaiian Tropic girls had been replaced this year, by the equally pneumatic "Rusk" girls, who looked exactly the same, aside from their black outfits.  I guess this is an obligatory part of the pre-race festivities, if you like, but there are times when it seems like just going through the motions….  The pomp and ceremony both speeded up and dumbed-down – I’m beginning to wish we could go back to the 4 pm start…..

Tommy Erdos makes his way to the #25 RML Lola     The drivers begin to collect for the big drivers photo     As the RML car was right down in front of me, you get another picture of Mr. Erdos....     Picking a car at random from this shot, the highly-fancied blue Team Felbermayr Porsche #77 of Lieb, Lietz and Henzler.  Qualified 39th     The dark blue mirrors here signify the #009 Lola Aston Martin of Hall, Kox and Primat.  Qualified 17th.

The Quifel-ASM Team Ginetta Zytek #40 of Amaral, Pla and Smith.  Qualified 25th.       Radio Le Mans has become (certainly for me) one of THE absolutely essential aspects of the Le Mans race each each.  Here we see the RLM commentary booth up in the main ACO grandstand, overlooking the start-finish straight.  RLM supremo John Hindhaugh (stripey top) prepares for the off.     Johnny O'Connell's great pal (!) Olivier Beretta, who was sharing the #64 Corvette with Gavin and Fässler. Qualified 32nd.       Yet another shot of the RML Lola with Erdos now safely ensconced....     As is Pierre Ragues in the #12.

Presumably the start driver of #009 is in there somewhere.....     Getting close to the off now as the doors are closed on the drivers....

At last the cars moved off and after a few trips into the pits, they eventually formed up again for the green flag lap.

The cars, having been released from the echelon formation, visit the pits for final checks.  Jamie Campbell-Walter at the wheel of the #4 Creation.     In the Navi Team Goh Porsche #5 is Seiji Ara, making a return to Le Mans after an absence of three years     Rolling up to take his position on the dummy grid is Emanuel Collard, an ever-present at Le Mans since his debut in a Porsche in 1995.     Jean de Pourtales runs into the pits in the #39 Lola Mazda he shared with Hideki Noda and Matthew Marsh.     Collard had driven for Pescarolo from 2004-2008, finishing 2nd overall in 2005.

The #63 Corvette rumbles through the pits, the two cars easily distinguishable for once this year...     Closed cockpits don't exactly aid driver identification, but I think this is Thomas Biagi in the #30 Racing Box Lola he shared with Bobbi and Piccini     As a team member attends to Collard's final needs, the crowd over in front of the grandstands, sweltering in the sun as usual, look forward to the start.     I only just caught the #9 Peugeot of Brabham, Wurz and Gene which qualified 5th     The #66 Aston Martin DB9 of the Jetalliance Racing team was driven by Lichtner-Hoyer, Müller and Gruber.  Qualified 34th.

Allan McNish brings the #1 Audi to the grid.  He qualified the car he would be sharing with Capello and Kristensen in 2nd place.     The #33 Speedy Sebah Lola Judd of Kane, Leuenberger and Pompidou.  Qualified 23rd.       The cars are now taking up their places on the dummy grid, 33, 4 and 12 await the final pace car lap....     Former winner and Bentley Boy Guy Smith runs through the pits in #40     McNish looking for a repeat of last year's victory....

Richard Dean, technical director of Ginetta Cars, brings the #6 LNT Ginetta to the grid.     Alexandre Premat is starting the #3 Audi which he would share with Bernhard and Dumas.  Qualified 7th.     Seiji Ara was of course a former winner - one of seven drivers on this year's grid who had already won the race overall.     The #2 Audi is settled into position.  The car would be driven by Luhr, Rockenfeller and Werner.  Qualified 6th.     Make way for the pole-sitter!  Franck Montagny starts the #8 Peugeot which was qualified on pole by Sarrazin.  Bourdais was the third driver of this car.

The #14 Kolles Audi R10 of Karthikeyan, Lotterer and Zwolsman.  Qualified 14th.  What a shock they had just minutes before the off!     The bright orange helmet denotes that Harold Primat is aboard the #009 Lola.     Keeping cool before the off....

Olivier Panis waits patiently for the start in Oreca #11     The #33 Speedy Lola was of course a favourite of mine following Friday's super pits hospitality from the team!!

Alongside John Hindhaugh in the RLM commentary box is my pal Paul Truswell, ready for his mammoth stint at the microphone.....

With eight or so minutes to go to the race start, the cars were released behind the pace car. That final lap before the start of Le Mans seems to take forever and aside from the babble of the commentators is actually greeted with near silence from the crowd in the grandstands and on the tribunes - at least until the cars finally reappear from the Porsche curves and dive through the Ford chicane into the first lap of the 24 Hours for another year.