24 Hours of Le Mans 2005 - Jox Jottings up to The Race..

Jox Jottings up to The Race..

Your scribe arrived on Wednesday having tramped back to UK after the practice session. I am getting to know the road from Calais to Le Mans and am getting fed up with the road works in Rouen. The weather was also disgusting. However, your scribe is a member of the ‘Smug Bastards Club’; it was all very well battering down in a nice Porsche but those heroes in Caterhams and Elises etc who were battling the elements were getting very damp, as were the Cobra Boys. (Plus the odd ‘fake-Snake I suspect). They seemed to have teamed up with some hot-rods and they really are unsuitable for filthy weather. But they do have a curious herd instinct that demands they travel in packs and spend a fair bit of time parked on the hard shoulder.

By way of a treat for years of loyal service to the site I was treated by our beloved leader to a spot in Parking Rouge. Ummm … I think it is marginally nearer Reykjavik but the walk will do me good. Rugged Martin has his push bike rather than his big BMW motor-bike at his disposal. By way of smoothing over a near mutiny DD agreed to drive me to within a few hundred miles of my car (which took hours), it might have been quicker to walk. The traffic levels suggest that there is no shortage or people here. Our Scandawegian correspondent says there are 30,000 Danes here - are there that many Danes in Denmark? Supporting Thorkild Thyrring, Lars Wheelspin, Jan Magnussen and Tom Kristensen. So, sadly, are the half naked, beer-sodden (if they aren’t yet, the soon will be) tattooed UK contingent… many of whom we suspect are chartered accountants and dentists ‘on tour’!

Qualifying has been a bit lacklustre. The Audis have made various heroic attempts at taking on the Courage and Pescarolos, but every time they got within sniffing distance the French simply ‘upped a gear’ and moved away! The race may well be won by the team that spends the least time in the pits rather than pure pace. There are three Audis and they do not have a reputation for falling to bits (despite this being their 6th visit to Le Mans, these cars ought to be in the Museum). So, even if two of them fall apart, there will still be one running at the end ! I think the crowds (or at least the French bit!) and we have a sneaking suspicion that the organisers would quite like to see a blue car on the podium… but I may be wrong.

I am not entirely sure I understand LMP2 …they are a bit smaller, less powerful, usually less reliable and marginally cheaper to run than an LMP1, but the ACO do really love their prototypes – provided they’re hobbled enough not to challenge for the win. For us Brits the little MG EX264 Lola run by Ray Mallock is a very tidy operation, OK so it does have a passing resemblance to the Lola –AER B05/40 but who cares, it is all Brit. Mike Newton tells us that he stuck with the MG badge on the front in the hope that some multi millionaire Russian buys the name and throws vast sums of money at him to run the car. He is now much happier in the car, Thomas Erdos is a vastly under-rated driver and Warren Hughes has been there, done that and got the T-Shirt. But after qualifying the quickest LMP2 was the No. 37 Belmondo Courage Ford - by yet another amazing coincidence, this is another French team with two French drivers.

In GT1 we are not at all sure whether the Corvettes are ‘sand-bagging’, covering up for problems with the new model, or simply being even cooler that usual. The No. 64 Corvette C6-R is 3rd in class behind the flying Astons. Prodrive do not turn out tatty unreliable cars and the two Astons are looking good. David Richards took the opportunity to launch the DBRS 9 which is a half way house for rich privateers. It looks pretty sexy. So the PR machine is rolling along smoothly. The Cirtek Ferrari is looking remarkably swift, the Russian ice-dancing duo Fomenko and Vasiliev are being ably supported by Bouchut. This is a complicated multi-national effort that seems to working. It interesting that the Ferrari 550 seems to be the expensive Italian car of choice rather than the later 575 model

GT2 yet again has a bit of a Porsche look about it. Scuderia Ecosse are here with their Ferrari 360 No. 93 and they have had a busy night ‘T-Cutting’ the car after Andrew Kirkaldy tested out it’s Euro-NCAP rating by throwing it at the wall and walking away; I am not 100% sure this is how Euro-NCAP is supposed to work. The Panoz (Panozzes? Panii?), particularly the No. 77 are nice and noisy and going rather well. It is hard to see them beating the well oiled Porsche machine but they might have fun trying.

On the social front the crowds are building up, the heat is climbing to levels which will ensure many Brits will rapidly develop the oh-so-fetching ‘lobster’ look. The Club Arnage team had their usual highly restrained B-b-q at Chateau Incomplete and as usual it failed to be in anyway restrained. Even on a good day ‘Cardinal Puff’ is not easy, nor is juggling with boules. Our rugged biker found that the brakes on a kiddy French push bike are back to front and went happily over the handlebars. The grazed knee would look more ruggedly impressive with a bit of sticky plaster on it.

Your scribbler picked a “wrong ‘un” somewhere and had his own little (no ..massive) Chernobyl plumbing moment which nearly killed Martin and himself. But that is maybe too much info. Suffice it to say that the small toilet was still a pretty dangerous place ten hours later.

Anyway things are brewing up (thankfully not in the gastric department) and we must go back to our ‘proper job’ working with the ACO.