Club Arnage

Anyone going to the south of France for some spring sunshine?

Would love to go to PR, never been, but never been to Spa before, and doing that this year.
One treat per year keeps things interesting, and in budget.

I'm pretty sure you are not alone in that choice.

PR is a long old trek south. I usually make it a 2 day journey by car. Fortunately I'm travelling down by EasyJet to Nice this time and driving from there. I'll update with reports and pics next week on this thread.

The BiL has sold his house on the coast so I've lost my free b&b but it's a circuit I adore so hope to be back in 2013 even if I have to pay!

Who's televising ELMS?  I know I should know but this vital info' seems to have passed me by this year.

I'll be there on Sunday with the boys and their grandfather. First time the race coincides with family's traditional Easter holiday in Frejus  ;D

Only bad is we'll be missing DJets bday party  :'(

Motors will be covering it,  not the whole 6 hours but a fair chunk of it live.

Just realied SWMBO is away that day, so I can have RLM blaring out around the house. ;D
What time is the start?

Wanted to go, but got Sebring instead.
I'll be at the Nürburgring on Saturday (VLN) and probably at Brands Hatch on Sunday (BTCC), not bad either  ;D

Jolly good. :)  Thanks.

If there's anyone like me always looking to save a few euros on entrance tickes, local news paper Var Matin has a code on a banner ad on their web page:

http://www.varmatin.com (http://www.varmatin.com)

You do know that their is a strong rumour going around that there will be only 17 starters for that race. Not looking good for the ELMS at the moment :'(

dont forget to take your own beer.

I think I may have said this last year, but I'm really jealous of those going to PR.  Its one of the circuits I really want to see a race at someday.  Being a commited fan of F1 during the seventies & eighties, Ricard was one of the circuits that defined that era.  State of the art when it was built in 1970, it remains that way.  It sounds like it may be a F1 venue again soon, so perhaps a trip to Provence to see the return of the French GP may be in order.
Fax

Fax,

Looks like you are right, according to autosport it could be back next year.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98451

Jules

Latest update says 23 starters, and they all have drivers. Not bad :)

http://www.europeanlemansseries.com/en/s52_circuits/s52p06_engages.php?circuit=19&annee=2012

i dont know how they could use it for f1 now.the road on is crap even compared ith silerstones old routes in.bernies company would have to spend a lot of money on opening up the rest of the circuit to spectators.it only has a license for 5000 people at the moment.and they would need to lift the booze ban.

LMP2 category looks as though it could produce an interesting race.

Even Eurodisney had to allow booze

I see that Loeb has legged it down there to front his team after crashing out in Portugal (wow, that was some wreck.)  Great timing on his part - hopefully he'll keep up French interest now that  Peugeot has  pulled out of sports car racing.

Live feed from Paul R
http://www.europeanlemansseries.com/en/s54_courses/s54p09_videos.php (http://www.europeanlemansseries.com/en/s54_courses/s54p09_videos.php)

cheers watching now.not many cars at race though.

Small field, but great race.
Well done Johnny Crocker.

I don't know why but I find Ricard in its present form is not very "telegenic" somehow.  Whether it's my ageing eyesight or what, I'm not sure, but its open-ness, the lack of many barriers, and all the lines seem to take the edge off the racing for me.  It's not at all evident when you're there but the TV seems to have a more negative effect there than on any other circuit.

Good race though and a great result for Team Loeb.  He'll be almost glad he landed upside down now.

Agree, it lacked the atmosphere that the old F1 races seemed to have there, probably due to the low numbers and lack of definition

But then its probably the old nostalgia kicking in (and my poor eyesight also) :-\

Looks like the Zolder round has been cancelled due to lack of entries.

Nothing wrong with a little nostalgia, but a low car count on a relatively long circuit like Ricard is going to make things look sparse.  I'm afraid not all's healthy with sportscar racing these days.  The big marque events like Le Mans and Sebring are going to attract large grids, but the regular ALMS & LMS grids are looking a bit anemic, especially in the prototype ranks.  The ALMS is being kept afloat by some terrific GT grids, but the LMP1 class is a joke.  The Grand-Am series isn't any healthier, despite what some of the knuckleheads in Dayotna would have you believe.  Their prototypes cost a fraction of a what a LMP1 car cost, and they can't assemble a full field.
Fax

Good race but I agree with termie that the circuit on television looked very untelegenic (great word Debs).
It almost looked like I was watching a stadard sized image on a wide screen, everything just looked so flat (including the cars).

you say that....but it doesn't half take a pretty photo....

http://www.motorsportphotoagency.com/-/galleries/2012/blancpain-endurance-test-paul-ricard/-/medias/f80a1518-73ba-11e1-837e-9dace8656118?ref=nf#loc=/-/galleries/2012/blancpain-endurance-test-paul-ricard/-/medias/2be582de-73c3-11e1-9fee-ed5814d52d48&t=1333443706052 (http://www.motorsportphotoagency.com/-/galleries/2012/blancpain-endurance-test-paul-ricard/-/medias/f80a1518-73ba-11e1-837e-9dace8656118?ref=nf#loc=/-/galleries/2012/blancpain-endurance-test-paul-ricard/-/medias/2be582de-73c3-11e1-9fee-ed5814d52d48&t=1333443706052)

I agree - I have always thought that PR circuit photos look brilliant.

All this Paul Ricard conversation reminded me that I have a copy of the 1976 French GP on VHS tape.  Broke it out tonight and watched it, with a good bottle of wine of course.  It really hit home how lovely F1 was back then.  A bright sunny day in Provence, huge crowd, James Hunt's McLaren M23 perfectly suited to the long straights and fast sweepers of Ricard, dominated the race, helped by both Ferrari's having their engines scatter, while at full chat on the Mistral (obviously the Maranello engine dept. tried to squeeze to much grunt for the passes down the straight).  Really the beginning of James championship charge.  Also great drives by Patrick Depailler in the P34, and Wattie in the Penske.  Ricard is probably much more manicured now, but it was also a hell of a GP venue back then.
Fax

http://p.twimg.com/ApvjiSdCQAE910Z.jpg

Speaking of which, the film 'Rush' is well into production now.  :D

Nice one Faxy, I am having a glass at the mo and it was good to read you message, memories yeh, that it is the future (?). Trust me...

>Martini...LB

Gentlemen,
Back home again after a nice holiday with family. The race last sunday was nice. It lacked a bit of intensity, but judging from your comments, it was far better in real than on TV ;)
Richard must be one of the worlds best located race tracks, even the drive there through the mountain roads is fun ;D
Facilities are nice and new - nothing like what I'd expect from a french site: Even the toilet buildings are perfect and clean. On the other hand, it does lack some atmosphere.

The race was rather eventless, but the Provence way is very relaxed, so... We had a great time :)

Photographers love the place. I think the density of large DSLRs and lenses was even higher than at Le Mans! Even I got a few good photos - Flickr album here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62832941@N05/sets/72157629723576845/

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7245/7038694111_d44667601f.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/62832941@N05/7038694111/)

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7123/6913423132_4f3d72cd98.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/62832941@N05/6913423132/)

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7182/6913434832_633f3ae662.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/62832941@N05/6913434832/)

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7130/7059518367_4cc5f6e99d.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/62832941@N05/7059518367/)

Cheers,
Anders

Lovely pictures there Anders.

I agree - Ricard is photogenic.  So why does it look so (relatively) cr*p on (moving) film?

It's four years since I last went.
One specially for you, Fran:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/97986095@N00/2316825484/in/set-72157604054725901/

Ahh - happy days!

Thanks for that.   ;D

F

Some lovely shots there Termietermite

Long straights, fast corners, open areas, too safe, no hills, which is ironic, since it's situated in a mountain area. It all boils down to too little action. Plus the stripes look great on photos, but disturbing on film.

Saleen at Richard, wonderful! :)


Thanks :)

I don't get the complaining about the stripes, doen't really bother me at all.  I didn't get a chance to see the LMS race, Speed dosen't carry the LMS, but watched the FIA GT race from last summer, and the circuit tends to look like most of the other contemporary "Tilke" tracks, except it does have fast corners and long straights.  Ricards painted runoff areas date way back to the eighties when they painted the runoff areas blue.  I suspect the bland feel to it probably had more to do with a poor car turnout and lack of on track action than the circuit itself.
Fax