A good account from Stefan.

[Nordic]

http://www.sjvaxjo.com/blogg.html

A good read I think. I seems its not just us who have problems getting tickets from the aco!

[Christopher]

Excellent article!

Nice little insight into life on the other side of the fence.


(But only 36 hours…..pah……I ended up putting in 39 hours this year. But then it did take me about 4 days to fully recover.)

[Steve Pyro]

A very interesting piece.  Obviously the drivers (well at least non French ones) get no better treatment from the ACO than us punters.

[termietermite]

Arrive at circuit yesterday, drive up to barrier.  Say "billeterie" to man in booth; barrier lifts, drive in.  Arrive at ticket office.  Man doing donuts on track with Pontiac GTO.  Stand and watch.  After five minutes, go in ticket office.  Hand girl at counter my receipt for Classic tickets previously ordered and paid for.  "Just a moment, " says girl with big smile, "I'll get them".  After about 20 seconds she returns with a sealed envelope with my name on it.  "I'll just check everything's here", she says, with another smile.  Opens envelope.  "Parking blanc ticket, one.  General entrace tickets, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ACO members' grandstand tickets," also counted, big smile still in place, "Paddock passes," same thing.  All there no, probs.  "Can I book for the DTMs in October?"  "yes of course," big smile, "Here's the form, and a pen".  "I'll have a look, fill it in at home and bring it back during the Classic".  "Excellent,"she says.  Big smile, "see you then."
Leave, pausing only to watch Nissan Z car doing burnup on circuit.

Now, I know I have the slight advantage of a bit better than schoolgirl French but can't imagine my reception if I tried to book at Brands only speaking French, can you?

[Paddy_NL]

thanks for that!

[Stu]

Good link, good craic. I wish a few more drivers would put stuff up like that as its always a good read. Better than the team/partyline stuff that comes out of most of them.

[hgb]

Fabulous story, I need a new keyboard now.  Thanks for posting.

[Andy Zarse]

Great story, he sums up what LM is about for me. And so much of it is all about navigating "local difficulties"! I usually find the girls in the ticket office terrific but the nearer the race the less helpful they get. Anyway, it seems it's not just the British who think the French are weird people!

[termietermite]

Great story, he sums up what LM is about for me. And so much of it is all about navigating "local difficulties"! I usually find the girls in the ticket office terrific but the nearer the race the less helpful they get. Anyway, it seems it's not just the British who think the French are weird people!

SOME British svp Andy.

[Fax]

I like Stefan alot and its a good read. Met him several times and he's always a pleasant bloke to chat with.
Did chuckle a bit when he sort of side stepped how they ended up out of the race.  He just said "Unfortunately our race ended" 
Jan & Stefan=Experienced, Fast, Mature, Proven Winners.
Egg Fu Yoong=Lots of money
Fax

[Nobby Diesel]

Interesting piece.
He should think himself lucky; he doesn't know what we have to go through for 5 or 6 days.
36 hours; kids stuff. He should try getting leathered for 20 hours a day, for 5 days on the trot.......that's endurance!

Seriously though, good article.

[Paddy_NL]

website seems to have vanished off the globe

[Werner]

website seems to have vanished off the globe

Just had contact with the website owner/admin: They expect to have it up and running again in a couple of hours.

One good news: We now have permission to publish Stefan Johanssons inside view on his LM 2006 week in the next CA 2007 guide  , I think this will be an enrichment, because it's a good read and, wow, we will have a race driver as an author...

Cheers

Werner

[termietermite]

What a coup Werner!

[Paddy_NL]

very well done Werner!

see you at the Ring