Le Mans 24Hr 12-16^th June 2003

This year was my third trip to Le Mans for the annual 24 hour race. I previously went in 2000 and 2001. I set off around 5am on Thursday the 12^th in my Batturd Cup ZX 16V to pick Ross Savile up and then meet up with his Dad Brian, who was driving down in his mk1 MR2 that he sprints. 55 minutes later we had done the 50 mile cross country trip to the Tunnel. We drive down via Rouen so the first bit of the journey was all motorway, then followed by some great single carriageway roads with lots of overtaking fun and apparently no speed limits if you’re British. We got to our camping site by the Esses mid afternoon, set up the tents and gazebo etc then went off to the local supermarket for BBQ food and beer. The rest of the day was spent eating, drinking and walking around our campsite and the adjoining one checking out the cars.

On Friday morning we walked down to the Alain Prost Karting track for some early morning humour. They had open visor helmets on a dusty track which was annoying but the circuit itself is good with some flat out chicanes etc. We then drove down to Indianapolis for what’s known as mad Friday. When I was there the previous times, lots of people parked up in their sports cars on the side of the road whilst others kept driving past. This then progressed to people stopping cars and making them do burnouts and thrashing off down the road. Unfortunately in 2001 a French Ferrari lost control and hit a British Seat Ibiza, there’s a video of it on the web and you can see my Visa parked in the background. Therefore there was a vast police presence this year and I expect last year as well. This was fine as we still had the cars driving past but then the police shut the road, which was a shame. Later in the afternoon we walked up the pit lane checking out the cars in their garages.

The rest of the evening was spent with food and beer again and watching the mad antics on the road behind the campsite that turned into a mini racetrack with a roundabout at the end. The most amusing bit being when Ross and I turned up and rode around it drinking beer on our unicycles with a couple of hundred British people cheering us on!

On Saturday we had the (dis)pleasure of bumping into Sam Collins. We then watched most of the Classic race from the Esses and then set off to Arnage to watch the start. This is always a good area as it’s not too crowded and you get to see the close battles and overtakes into Arnage. The Bentleys started well and never really looked back. The Racing for Holland Dome Judd of Jan Lammers briefly got into 3^rd before succumbing to the Audi’s. The cars with those F1 derived Judd V10’s sound incredible. The Bentleys are spookily quiet. At the other end of the scale you get the painfully loud Panoz’s and Corvettes resembling unsilenced tractors (think Ian Crockers Westfield but 10 times as loud). The 2 TVR’s didn’t do too well in qualifying but after a few laps started catching and overtaking a couple of cars. Unfortunately one crashed out after a few hours and the other retired during the night.

Early evening we went to watch the racing from the Esses, then Tertre Rouge before making our way down towards the start finish straight via the fairground. Note: Don’t ever go on the petrol bumper karts there, as they are lethal. Glowing disks are a wonderful site in the dark. We watched some of the late night pit lane action and retired for the night around 2am.

On Sunday we watched some more of the racing from the Porsche Curves before making our way up to Arnage and Indianapolis. The Bentleys were a few laps up by the end although there was a close fight on for 5^th between the Panoz and the Courage Judd. Quite a good race even if the fight for the front was never that close. After the finish we got onto the track and walked down to the pit lane to see Park Ferme and the podium. The rest of the day was spent looking around the campsite, unicycling and chatting to other people.

We left around 9am Monday morning. Met some traffic but on the whole it was ok. I had blown a small hole in the ZX’s exhaust on the way down. This progressed to the exhaust breaking in 2 behind the rear box so we had to stop and tie it up with wire J We eventually got back early evening. Overall it was a great holiday, relatively cheap and I would recommend it to any car/motorsport fan. The car site seeing alone is great before you even consider the race itself. Ferrari Enzo, Pagina Zonda, 2 Diablos, Murcielago, Ferraris/Porshces/Tvr’s everywhere etc….Roll on 2004