Click the small thumbnail pictures for lots of Le Mans Photos!
This year Bob Lovelace took on the challenge of organising an informal gathering of Porsche Club of Great Britain members inside the track in Houx Annexe. The response was excellent with over 140 Porsches camping together, a BBQ on Friday night for 400, the Club Shop, Audio/Visual kit for entertainment and satellite TV reception of the race and more. I was involved in setting up a SmartGroup Forum to enable communication prior to the race. Take a visit there to see photos of people' transport, trip reports and more. I also supplied the Audio/PA system which got there and back without any problems.
Many, many thanks to Bob for his initiative and hard work in setting up this event. Thanks also to Andy Norris and several others who voluntarily helped Bob make the week work.
As per last year David Butscher from New Orleans joined my in my trip
to Le Mans in 2002. I thought I would be clever and save some money over the PCGB package offered by
Travel Destinations. However, as many folks
discovered this year, ACO made an absolute total cock-up over campsite tickets.
Many people who ordered in August did not get the tickets requested. I was one
of them and ended up having to by a package from MRI and losing the cost of a
crossing. Lesson learnt for 2003 where I will with Travel Destinations
from day one.
This year the weather was looking good and we left on the Friday
morning for the 7:00am Portsmouth to Cherbourg
Fast Cat. They sure
do cram
the cars on these high-speed ferries. We joined up with Elliott and Ellen
in their C2 964 and had a straight forward blast to Le Mans. Made a slight
mistake approaching the Vert entrance and lost 30 minutes, however Elliott as a
first timer had a real challenge in finding Houx Annexe and arrived a trifle
stressed.
Bob Lovelace and the team had done a great job marking out an
area for the 200 expected Porsches in Houx Annexe. However, when we
arrived at 2pm it was pretty much already full. Squeezed in on the edge.
Turned out we were a little too near the edge as spectators watching the
wheelies and slides on the roundabout behind us kept walking into our tents, so
we moved inwards later in the evening. Click the photo for loads of photos
of people and Porsche enjoying themselves.
Brian
Fraser has suggested a convoy around the track on Friday. We arranged via our
Le Mans SmartGroup to
drive the track and meet up for a photo shoot at Porsche Curves. Most of
us made it but this year the Gendarmes had made part of the circuit one way at
Indianapolis so we had to take the country route to Porsche Curves.
We passed through some red tape and met up for some photos and chat. The
circuit was much busier this year and our blast not so much fun. Missed
the track walkabout this year due to the photo shoot.
Fine
weather this year. No rain at all and not that hot. Audi dominated
the Prototypes but my interest was focussed on the GT3 RS of
PK Sport.
PCGB was supporting the only British entered Porsche. In return PK Sport
donated some great raffles prizes to the group. Unfortunately PK Sport
retired on Saturday evening with an engine problem. Visit their site for a
great write-up of the 2002
race.
I was also following The Racers Group's GT3 RS who had a great race and finished first in the GT Class. You can find lots of photos and race reports on their site.
The Racers Group is sponsored by Rennlist and in addition is linked to The Natalie Louise Streather Memorial Fund. Adrian Streather's daughter died this year and Adrian (964 C4 owner) has set up the fund in Natalie's memory to provide university scholarships for arts degrees. The Fund is also working with The Racers Group and Rennlist to recruit a package of sponsors to help The Racers Group successfully defend their title in 2003. Please visit Adrian's site for information on how you can participate.
Results, hourly race reports and plenty of photos can be found on the official ACO Le Mans Site.
Our race coverage was a similar formula as to last year. Start and Finish watched from our grandstand seats (tickets bought direct from the ACO). Wandering around the track with rest stops and info catch-ups at the MRI hospitality tent, the grandstand and a new (to me) area for ACO members only on the inside of the track in the village by the Sebring Restaurant.
This year we started
out towards Mulsanne after dinner in the town on Saturday evening to find the
traffic horrendous. We therefore decided to do the trip prior to dawn and
went back to the campsite for bed at 1am and up again at 4:30am. Out to
Arnage with no traffic to see the brake discs glowing and then the dawn come up.
Back to the Grandstand straight parking in the road outside as there again was
no traffic. I preferred this schedule and will repeat in 2003 but perhaps
with a slightly earlier bedtime.
No
trouble at all leaving the track around 6pm heading south to Chateau-du-Loir
in a typical small town hotel which has been recommended to us by Richard Ling-Williams
from the 964 SmartGroup. We were also joined
for dinner by Riccardo Gubbioli in his
964. Both Richard and Ricardo submit running reports on this Website. If
you are interested in checking out their transport, Goto the
Reviews
page.
Next morning we took a cruise down to the Loire via Azay-Le-Rideau, Chinon, Saumur and Angers. On the way back North we stopped for drink at Ambriere Les Vallees only to be joined by another Guards Red 964 who had been camped alongside us at Le Mans. Small 964 world.
We were now cutting it a bit fine and really had to push hard to Cherbourg for the 7pm ferry. Hit loads of road works on the way as luck would have it. Arrived at the port literally 3 minutes before they closed the ramp and set sail.
See you in 2003.
