Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 2:49 pm
Nick,
There are loads of sites with advice from a race-goers point of view, but a good starting point (with loads of links) is www.maisonblanche.co.uk
I've been going regularly for a while (cars, not bikes!), but 2005 will be the first year at the wheel of my own early 911
My advice re campsites, if you're not going on a group organised trip, would be to try and get a place on one of the sites on the interior of the circuit.
For the last 3 years I've been lucky enough to be a guest of Audi Sport UK, and their campsite (free beer! hot clean showers! grassy knolls! sorry,
just boasting now) links to a path which can take you to the Armco on Les Hunaudieres, just opposite the Chinese restaurant.
Strictly interdit, monsieur le gendarme, but I've managed to do it without getting caught thus far!
And someone asked about visiting other parts of the circuit. (Parts other than the main tribunes etc.).
That would cover Indianopolis/Arnage, Mulsanne corner, and Les Hunaudieres. At 2 restaurants on the (outside of) the straight you can get right
next to the track - and even see it if you have a ladder/can climb).
IMHO there's only one viable way of going to these areas if you can face it - at dawn!
If you set the alarm in the tent for 4.30, then bowl bleary eyed into the car, there's none of the nightmare traffic jams normally blocking access
to these areas.
In fact, it's so quiet, you can happily relive the opening scenes of Le Mans the movie. The back road drive from Mulsanne to Arnage,
although not the same exact same stretch of road McQueen travels (that's further toward Maison Blanche),
it's very much like it.
And if the weather's fine, you'll have the sun's first rays on the windscreen
, and the famous morning mist to sweep through. 
That early morning tradition is always the highlight of the race for my dad and I.
Here's a Le Mans at dawn taster - the 2004 winning Audi R8 passes a GT3 - 6am at Mulsanne Corner:
www.ibf.co.uk/inheremark/lm2004/teamgoh_mulsanne_6am.rm
Wait up. I'm getting excited about this year's race far too early. This is endurance racing - I should pace myself!
There are loads of sites with advice from a race-goers point of view, but a good starting point (with loads of links) is www.maisonblanche.co.uk
I've been going regularly for a while (cars, not bikes!), but 2005 will be the first year at the wheel of my own early 911
My advice re campsites, if you're not going on a group organised trip, would be to try and get a place on one of the sites on the interior of the circuit.
For the last 3 years I've been lucky enough to be a guest of Audi Sport UK, and their campsite (free beer! hot clean showers! grassy knolls! sorry,
just boasting now) links to a path which can take you to the Armco on Les Hunaudieres, just opposite the Chinese restaurant.
Strictly interdit, monsieur le gendarme, but I've managed to do it without getting caught thus far!
And someone asked about visiting other parts of the circuit. (Parts other than the main tribunes etc.).
That would cover Indianopolis/Arnage, Mulsanne corner, and Les Hunaudieres. At 2 restaurants on the (outside of) the straight you can get right
next to the track - and even see it if you have a ladder/can climb).
IMHO there's only one viable way of going to these areas if you can face it - at dawn!
If you set the alarm in the tent for 4.30, then bowl bleary eyed into the car, there's none of the nightmare traffic jams normally blocking access
to these areas.
In fact, it's so quiet, you can happily relive the opening scenes of Le Mans the movie. The back road drive from Mulsanne to Arnage,
although not the same exact same stretch of road McQueen travels (that's further toward Maison Blanche),
it's very much like it.
And if the weather's fine, you'll have the sun's first rays on the windscreen
, and the famous morning mist to sweep through. That early morning tradition is always the highlight of the race for my dad and I.
Here's a Le Mans at dawn taster - the 2004 winning Audi R8 passes a GT3 - 6am at Mulsanne Corner:
www.ibf.co.uk/inheremark/lm2004/teamgoh_mulsanne_6am.rm
Wait up. I'm getting excited about this year's race far too early. This is endurance racing - I should pace myself!
looking forward to this years event.
