DDK to LeMans ....

[early_911]

Helen and I made a last minute decision to go down on the bike. No room for a tent and no accomadation booked we decided we'd try and sleep rough at tertre rouge. It was way too noisy there so we moved to Mulsanne. In the pitch black we found a spot with no brambles and tried to get some shut eye (managed a few hours).

When daylight arrives, turns out that we slept about 10 metres from you (recognised your interior).

It was very early when we woke, and none of you were about. We went for a coffee and to watch a bit of the racing and by the time we came back your way, you'd gone.

I thought it was a bit spooky that we'd ended up where we did.

We had a great time and were so glad we made the effort.

After the race we made a short trip to to a lovely hotel about an hour from the circuit. Full of race goers, I'd definitely recommend it and would stay again http://www.hoteltribunalorne.com. Food was excellent.

We're off to Watkins Glen 6 hour race in a week or so (followed by a week in NYC). The cars are a bit less sophisticated in the Tudor racing series, but my god they are loud (went to Sebring last year).

Phil

[jury]

Great stuff boys Eventful roadtrip, but good to hear everyone got back in one piece.

Darren at CLM in the Mongrel ? Great, I'll take the E

[hot66]

Helen and I made a last minute decision to go down on the bike. No room for a tent and no accomadation booked we decided we'd try and sleep rough at tertre rouge. It was way too noisy there so we moved to Mulsanne. In the pitch black we found a spot with no brambles and tried to get some shut eye (managed a few hours).

When daylight arrives, turns out that we slept about 10 metres from you (recognised your interior).

It was very early when we woke, and none of you were about. We went for a coffee and to watch a bit of the racing and by the time we came back your way, you'd gone.

I thought it was a bit spooky that we'd ended up where we did.

We had a great time and were so glad we made the effort.

After the race we made a short trip to to a lovely hotel about an hour from the circuit. Full of race goers, I'd definitely recommend it and would stay again http://www.hoteltribunalorne.com. Food was excellent.

We're off to Watkins Glen 6 hour race in a week or so (followed by a week in NYC). The cars are a bit less sophisticated in the Tudor racing series, but my god they are loud (went to Sebring last year).

Phil

Shame we missed you Phil ... Sunday I was up & about from 7am, grabbing a shower etc .. we'd all got packed up & ready to roll by about 9:45 , wanted to get a start just in case there were any problems with John's oil leak

As you , glad we made the effort , really enjoyed it

[bjmullan]

Sounds like a great trip, thanks for sharing James

[Darren65]

Darren at CLM in the Mongrel ? Great, I'll take the E...

....it's a date!

[shoestring7]

We'd decided to camp at LeMans away from the more traditional and rowdy sites and instead camp at Mulsanne Corner, knowing we had one of the best viewing points and for old boys like us less of the chav crowd banging on all night

To be honest, we'd expected it to be heaving but it turned out to be just right with plenty of space in the trees .

Track getting prepped ready for action

Ironically my son James and I decided to watch the start from that spot after catching the Historic and Aston races at Arnage. The big advantage is you can see the whole field travelling at their slowest in the warm-up at Mulsanne corner, while following the race on the big screen and Radio LM is very easy.

We spotted your cars but didn't see any occupants - after a few hours we headed up to Tetre Rouge; parked right outside the entrance (bikes seem to have a licence to park anywhere)until about 1am before heading back to our digs for some shut-eye. Returned to the circuit (again parking outside the gates) at the Porsche curves for a few hours, before heading up to the ACO enclosure on the inside of the Esses for the finish.

After finding the 'lost' (it really isn't) 1906 GP circuit on Monday morning we spent some time on Tuesday at Utah beach before catching the afternoon Caen-Portsmouth ferry back. Got home around midnight; great race, great company and we might even do it again in a couple of years!

C>