Club Arnage

In 2002 we camped in Blue car park - next to a bloke called John - a Stockbroker from London - driving a Testarossa. Got chatting and he opened the bonnet of the Testarossa to reveal 15 of the biggest fireworks you have ever seen!! and he had reputedly been doing 160 on the way down! About midnight on Friday night he decided that it was time for a firework so got a nice big rocket and headed of down to the road along side camping blue - the rest of us following at a safe distance. He planted said rocket discretely in the banking - but a bit to well - the fuse was quite long, as he retreated to a safe distance (there were a number of gendarme fairly close as they had cleared the burnout crowd) a couple for geordie lads - a bit worst for ware wandered past and sat down virtually beside said rocket. When this thing started to try and lift (it was too late to warn the Geordie's but they soon noticed it as the ground began to shake and were then possibly the fastest thing in le mans!) it was stuck in the bank and despite having the rocket power of an Apollo to a few seconds to wrench itself free. The result was that it only got about 20 feet before exploding - poor geordies having the best underside view, (but took it with good humour - when they got their hearing back) all beat a hasty retreat away from the advancing Gendarme who were not so amused!!

Reminds me of the occasion we had a pi**ed team member who insisted he attach a paper plate to a rocket - the result was an unpredictable sidewinder missile that seemed to weave between tents at ground level for a few seconds before flying straight into a tent. Fortunately the tent didn't catch fire, and no one was in it, but none the less a brown trouser moment...