Our trip to the 24hrs of Le Mans
Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:34 pmI am one of the lucky people that witnessed the amazing 24hrs of Le Mans first hand. Every few years we travel to England to visit Sarah's Grandmother who is now 88. This year I put my foot down. I told Sarah we are going to plan our trip around Le Mans. It's a perfect time to pull it off. No kids, a few extra days, and I can get this one off my list of things to do!! Sarah planned just about everything. After hanging out with Grandma for 5 days, we flew to France. For two nights we stayed at this amazing Chateau in Alencon (45min north of Le Mans). As we arrive we see two couples jumping out of there 1932 Bentley blowers (5-6M each!). They had driven them all the way from England. 80 year old cars and the only problem they had was one flat tire. We ended up hanging out with the four of them that night. They educated us on Le Mans and explained that our camping spot at the end of the Mulsanne straight is less than ideal. It's too far away from the action. He had a fix for that... his friends did not show up for the race and he had an extra camping pass by the Porsche curves and a front row parking pass by the Dunlop bridge. Now we were set.
Friday we set off to the track. We found our camping spot and setup our tent.
As soon as we had our spot setup we set out on foot to explore the track and the town of Le Mans.
This photo is all I could get of the event in the town of Le Mans. It was crazy. Here was a shot of the Mazda GTP car blipping it's insane loud rotary motor as it ran through the crowds.
Audi had everything imaginable on display...
Friday night was a huge party...50,000 people camping was the number that was being thrown around. All sorts of groups dressed up with different themes...not sure what this one was?
After a great night of beer and fun we went to bed and got ready for the big day (Saturday) Most of the campers played music and shot off fireworks all night...we were so tired I don't think I woke up once.
Saturday afternoon we just walked around to checked out everything as the place got more and more packed.
It was so crowded on the first lap... all I could do was put my camera in the air and fire off photos. This was lap one with the first car in front the the jumbo screen.
Here are some shots as the hours started going by....
Many of the shots that look extra special are due to my friends 300MM F4 lens I borrowed from my buddy.
I know it's blurry...but I love this shot.
The Diesels were racing at 8am like it was a sprint race!!!!
So Sunday early in the a.m. we getup to and head to our camping spot at the Mulsanne corner and right away we encounter massive traffic. People everywhere, cars, bicycles motorcycles etc. I figured we were screwed and it was going to take 2 hours to dive there. As we come around the first roundabout I notice the first right is this little country road with nobody on it. There are about 6 people checking passes at the gate. Everything on our side of the gate is general chaos. This hole opens in the crowd and I just drive right through it as if I knew where I was going, right past the gate staff and nobody stopped us. Now we were the only ones on this two lane road heading East... in our mirrors it looked like the Del Mar Fair on a Saturday. As we kept going we reached a parking lot the size of costco/home depot etc. Empty. Nobody anyplace. What's at the back of the lot???? On the other side of the 4 ft high armco...yep... the Mulsanne straight and cars are flying by at insane speeds.
We are the only ones around. I pull up as close as we can and Sarah reminds me that if someone flys over the fence we are dead. So I drove to this building about 20 yards away with a two story staircase outside. We jumped out and went to the top. Here are some photos.
Then it gets better....we head down from the building and jump in our car before someone finds us. We head back down our little road, back toward the crazy round about. We see a left turn (south) so we take it. There are two people checking passes who speak no English and I ask if the Mulsanne corner is this way...they say yes and before they can check anything I just drive down the road. The road turns to a dirt road after a mile or so then we follow signs and pop out on a golf course. Next thing you know we are on the inside of the famous Mulsanne corner. All the crowds are on the OTHER side of the track.
We spend the rest of the race right there. It was awesome. Here are some photos.
Pack of 911's on the hunt for food.
LAST LAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Parade lap.
THE END
Friday we set off to the track. We found our camping spot and setup our tent.
As soon as we had our spot setup we set out on foot to explore the track and the town of Le Mans.
This photo is all I could get of the event in the town of Le Mans. It was crazy. Here was a shot of the Mazda GTP car blipping it's insane loud rotary motor as it ran through the crowds.
Audi had everything imaginable on display...
Friday night was a huge party...50,000 people camping was the number that was being thrown around. All sorts of groups dressed up with different themes...not sure what this one was?
After a great night of beer and fun we went to bed and got ready for the big day (Saturday) Most of the campers played music and shot off fireworks all night...we were so tired I don't think I woke up once.
Saturday afternoon we just walked around to checked out everything as the place got more and more packed.
It was so crowded on the first lap... all I could do was put my camera in the air and fire off photos. This was lap one with the first car in front the the jumbo screen.
Here are some shots as the hours started going by....
Many of the shots that look extra special are due to my friends 300MM F4 lens I borrowed from my buddy.
I know it's blurry...but I love this shot.
The Diesels were racing at 8am like it was a sprint race!!!!
So Sunday early in the a.m. we getup to and head to our camping spot at the Mulsanne corner and right away we encounter massive traffic. People everywhere, cars, bicycles motorcycles etc. I figured we were screwed and it was going to take 2 hours to dive there. As we come around the first roundabout I notice the first right is this little country road with nobody on it. There are about 6 people checking passes at the gate. Everything on our side of the gate is general chaos. This hole opens in the crowd and I just drive right through it as if I knew where I was going, right past the gate staff and nobody stopped us. Now we were the only ones on this two lane road heading East... in our mirrors it looked like the Del Mar Fair on a Saturday. As we kept going we reached a parking lot the size of costco/home depot etc. Empty. Nobody anyplace. What's at the back of the lot???? On the other side of the 4 ft high armco...yep... the Mulsanne straight and cars are flying by at insane speeds.
We are the only ones around. I pull up as close as we can and Sarah reminds me that if someone flys over the fence we are dead. So I drove to this building about 20 yards away with a two story staircase outside. We jumped out and went to the top. Here are some photos. Then it gets better....we head down from the building and jump in our car before someone finds us. We head back down our little road, back toward the crazy round about. We see a left turn (south) so we take it. There are two people checking passes who speak no English and I ask if the Mulsanne corner is this way...they say yes and before they can check anything I just drive down the road. The road turns to a dirt road after a mile or so then we follow signs and pop out on a golf course. Next thing you know we are on the inside of the famous Mulsanne corner. All the crowds are on the OTHER side of the track.
We spend the rest of the race right there. It was awesome. Here are some photos. Pack of 911's on the hunt for food.
LAST LAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Parade lap.
THE END
