That's a historic Italian trait.

RLM mentioned 234,000 as the attendance about an hour before the end.

Having camped on BSJ for the last 5 years we again decided to arrive on Monday to ensure a decent pitch.

Needn't have bothered!

We sat for 3 days in the rain wondering if anyone would turn up at all. Even by Thursday evening the place was deserted compared to previous years. The organiser's plan seemed to be to place people near the central roadway through the first two fields before filling up the rest of the areas.

To be honest though the Securite spent most of Monday and Tuesday pacing out 7m x 5m pitches and marking them with wooden stakes and barrier tape. But no one arrived to occupy them. I'm baffled why they conscientiously sprayed the tops of each stake with orange flourescent paint? (Answers on a postcard please)

You can see how bored we were!

If there appeared to be fewer people about during the race I wasn't aware of it like others seem to be. There has over the last 4 years been a significant increase in the number of spectator areas and this year BSJ had its very own brand new viewing area on the inside of the track at the braking area into the Porsche Curves (Excellent). These areas must attract spectators away from the usual melee in front of the stands. I know we haven't bothered for years.

We stopped off in Arnage on the way back from St Saturnin and had a meal and beers in L'Arlequin.

From what I saw nothing got too out of hand.

There was a distinct air of 'highjacking' by the Brits though. Most of what came along the road had UK plates.

We weren't there all afternoon so maybe others can testify differently.

...too challenging to mention only one,

The weather changing on Thursday after 3 days constant rain.

Watching the 6 Euros Pyro Engineer hide himself behind a 10mm diameter stake he was using as a poker when the Sapeurs Pompiers jeep came over to check out our BSJ signal fire.

In 2004 we were on BSJ and close to us were a Dutch group who had a couple of what can only be described as 'Super Guns'.

Basically crow scarer type gas guns.

The bigger one was about 5ft long and about 10in diameter.

They loaded it with a large hessian sack full of rags or straw to provide the resistance not present with a usual crow scarer. The sack was tethered to it so only flew a yard or two.

When it went off the result was much as you describe Steve; earth shaking!

John

Posting this from Opera 9.52 on XP SP3.

John

..or a tent.

They are a plastic bag of sorts and are often filled with flammable gas!

We will need 12 and were planning to get them from the ACO early in the week.

We are arriving BSJ on Monday lunchtime but can pick them up from anywhere in the vicinity.

When are you arriving?

Fantastic effort Werner.

Well done to all involved.

Ah yes! Drinkies in the holding lanes.

A couple of years ago Soppy Bollox and mates waiting in their camper in front of us got their patio set out and all proceeded to down a couple of bottles of Champers.

After everything in the lane in front of them had been waved through and the stewards finally persuaded them that they should move, they smashed a bottle right in front of us in their haste to pack away.

Luckily we had the Landy with MS tread so it wasn't a problem.

We were behind them going up the loading ramp too when they stalled and rolled back down and nearly f**ked our whole week up!

And guess what? They were all in the bar before us and were still there when we turned in. Our driver not having touched a drop.

And guess what? In the morning everyone had to reverse and pull out around a deserted camper van to make landfall in France!

Have a beer by all means but try and be adult about it.

Have a safe journey down and hope to meet everyone at the Courbe Bar on Saturday evening. We'll do the serious drinking in Le Mans.

John

Try Tertre Rouge and the local Camembert.

John

Is anyone else on the overnight LD Lines ferry from Portsmouth to Le Harve on Sunday 7th?

This Vodafone deal is valid for the whole of Europe and is definitely a good deal especially if you have a 'minutes' package. You do have to ensure that you set your preferred network to the local Vodafone one. They aren't going to waive roaming fees if you use someone elses network.

It doesn't start until 1st June so if go over before then, beware.

We got back to BSJ about an hour and a half after the finish last year and the Chief Blackshirts were paying off the rest of them in hard cash before they all disappeared!

The site was completely unguarded from about 7 pm.

'This definitely explains why we did not find so many controllers situated around the camping area'

There were whole bands of 'ill-intentioned' people roaming around all evening. They even had a couple of 7 ton flatbeds!

Dresch?