Sometimes we get to hear stories from our customers that have travelled with us to Le Mans. Often these are stories told over the phone when re-booking for next year. We often tell customers to let us have something in writing and we will publish it here. So just as an example here is one we received earlier. It may be quite long, but we think it tells the Le Mans story well:
I have fond memories of my first Le Mans experience in 2011. Safe to say, I am an addict of anything with an internal combustion engine, and I have always wanted to go to Le Mans.
As with many things these days it all started via a chat on Facebook. This one was with a good friend and Dailysportscar contributor, Paul Slinger. Out of the blue he asked if I would like to join him and go to Le Mans. In a flash myself and fellow petrol heads Dan March and James Sapp were signed up with the team at Travel Destinations. We were going to Le Mans.
Our Le Mans team ready to go
Friday 10th June
I awoke at 5am to the sound of conversation. Paul was already rabbiting on in detail about drivers, their class of vehicle and previous year’s results. We had all gathered at mine the night before to make an early start. The road trip to the Eurotunnel was uneventful, other than seeing dawn break, until we met up with a Citroen 2CV which had its roof, b frame and c frame totally cut off, leaving just the windscreen and a driver with full leathers and a motorbike helmet driving what was left. Surely he was not going all the way to Le Mans? Paul informed me that stranger vehicles have made it Le Mans before now and that it was inevitably where he was heading. Our stickered up Saab looked comfortable in comparison. Arriving at the Eurotunnel terminal, the car park was full of all sorts of motoring exotica. TVR Tuscans, Porsches, Ferraris and even an MG SV. Amazing!
Red, white & blue Audis
It didn’t take long for us to start passing fellow Le Mans fans on the run to Le Mans from Calais. Dan spent most of the trip with his head and camera out of the window, especially when a trio of red, white & blue Audi R8s flew by. Sadly I couldn’t keep up with them. We had the same types of encounters with Aston Martin V8 Vantages, Ferrari 308 GTB, Mercedes C Class AMG 63 (beautiful sound) and a not so dramatic but still glorious Aston Martin DB5. This is how I envisaged the road trip to Le Mans to be and so far it has lived up to and exceeded my expectations.
Arriving at the Travel Destinations campsite
We were welcomed at the gate when we arrived at the Travel Destinations trackside campsite. Behind the scenes these were the guys who had sorted out our weekend including our channel crossing and our campsite pitch at the Porsche Curves. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was to learn that this was quite an exclusive campsite, with a bar and TV facilities and it really was right on the Porsche Curves with a viewing terrace right above it. The tent was pitched by us with all the coordination of a chimp enclosure, some beers and lack of sleep was now in full effect. Once the tent was up, we cracked straight on with what is known as “Mad Friday”.
“Mad Friday”, for people who haven’t been to Le Mans, is where the crowds proceed to the main drag outside the circuit entrance to welcome in other cars from all over Europe. The welcoming is more akin to hanging out down your local Sainsbury’s car park late on a Friday evening, inviting like minding folk to conduct burnouts with their Vauxhall Novas or Citroën Saxo’s, but in this case it just has an upmarket feel with Corvettes, Maseratis, Ferrari and TVRs taking centre stage in front of massive, cheering crowds. We then jumped onto the tram to Le Mans town centre for the drivers’ parade.
The Le Mans drivers were completing their parade when we arrived and although we hoped to sneak a peek, the reality is we simply got there too late and we couldn’t see them due to crowds there before us. Instead we decided on a dinner of steak, chips and beers. From this point my memory gets a bit blurry; we went to another bar and the evening ended back at the campsite, so I was told.
Refreshment at Le Mans
Saturday June 11th (race day)
I woke to the sounds of the morning Le Mans Legends race taking place and helicopters flying all around. What a wake-up call from our slumbers in our sleeping bags. Whilst still considering opening my eyes I hear the beautiful and unmistakable sound of the Mazda 787B. That rotary engine is so distinctive. My hangover quickly disappeared as the sounds of Le Mans got ever louder. The main event was coming.
Paul had been up for some time and reported back that the Travel Destinations toilets and showers were excellent and the hot shower was just what he needed. Paul gathered us all up for the easy sojourn back to the start line to take us to the infamous pit walk. He wouldn’t let us miss this. This is where spectators are allowed, at arm’s length, to view the goings on of all the teams prior to the race. It is environment full of sounds of air gun sockets and team members pushing cars through the crowds to the relevant pit area. It’s amazing how close you can get. These are the cars which are going to race at full speed for 24 hours and again I was caught up in the moment, it was unbelievable. Lots of pictures of the unfolding scene were taken, and then Paul kindly got an invite for us to go past the ropes and into the Lotus garage, how amazing.
In the Lotus garage
Looking at the engineering, it was hard to make out what was going on, just massive brakes, huge exhaust manifolds, laptops plugged in to various points and people getting on with their tasks. And all this for what I don’t think anyone would mind saying was probably the slowest car at the race. We exited via the back of the Lotus team garage and decided to have a wander around the stalls and get our bearings before the race started.
With lunch completed and some medicinal beer consumed, we headed back to the campsite for a bit of chill out before 3pm (the start of Le Mans 24 hours). 3pm came round quicker than anticipated, which led to a sprint to the rear gates of the circuit from the campsite, under the track (hearing the French version of the Red Arrows flying overhead), then into position in the crowds at the stand right opposite the start/finish marker. Much jostling for position was had but all were happy, with James hanging off a wire fence and one of his feet on my shoulder. I had a view of the big screen; that was enough for me.
Crowds at the start of the Le Mans 24 Hours
This is where I might get emotional. The cars were completing their formation lap, ready for the rolling start. I could see the red Audi S5 safety car on the screen and the commentary was blaring out in French which just added to the atmosphere. The safety car peeled off to the pit lane and then the cars raced past, all with their individual sounds: petrol and diesel technology V8, V10, V12, naturally aspirated or force air induction, all side by side. I didn’t need to see the cars, I just closed my eyes and listened, focussing on one sense just intensifies this situation. I was at the Le Mans 24 hours, and I couldn’t quite believe it. Luckily I was wearing my sunglasses, otherwise people might have noticed that there were a few seconds where my tears may have betrayed that I wasn’t just an alpha petrol-addicted male. If at first you don’t understand, you must go to Le Mans to appreciate this feeling. It is unexplainable.
The day proceeded in walking around the circuit and viewing the racing at various points and practising my sports photography. We were all just behind the stands when were heard of the unfortunate, and at first reports apparently near-fatal, accident had by Allan McNish in his Audi. If that type of crash happened only four years ago, he wouldn’t be here, thank goodness that the teams strive for bettering their technology all the time. When we did see the replays all we could do was look at each other, nothing needed to be said.
The day progressed with visiting stalls in the main area, grabbing some trackside photos and refilling the tough plastic pint glass with cold refreshing beer. The glass is a great memento to keep as it has the Le Mans graphics and date on the side. I can see myself having quite a collection of these from the years ahead.
Using the team sheets which Paul had kindly printed off and explained the categories and regulations to us on the drive down, everything was falling into place in a live environment right in front of us. Of course a lay man of Le mans would pick a team to support that has been at the front of the pack for a number of years, with history and pedigree to back them up; Audi or Peugeot you would have thought, but the cars which we all agreed we would support would be based on sound. That led to the obvious choices of the V12 Aston Martin, an amazing old school howl, and my favourite the V8 Corvettes. Although American, these Corvettes reminded me of the supercharged Rolls Royce engines of Spitfires, totally addictive and unique in their present company. A note to self moment was “bring a light camping chair next time to Le Mans”, as your feet do get tired from the miles of walking, and a small break at each vantage point would be a better. Also I might put a few rusty BMX’s on the roof or maybe in the boot of the car next year to get about on, it seems the vogue transport of many and truth be told quite an efficient way of getting about.
Stickered up for Le Mans
After getting our bearings, we all decided to head back to the Travel Destinations campsite to welcome in the evening light. Also as the campsite is placed conveniently on the Porsche curves, we can get long exposure shots of the cars with their running and number lights on. This in truth is when there is real influx of people back to the trackside as it’s the best time to see the race in all its glory; sun setting, classic yellow head lights cast on the tarmac and the start finish area glowing in all iits glory in the distance. Truly amazing. The Travel Destinations campsite is secured and monitored and our tent and belongings are all fine, even though we left quite a few bits and pieces outside in our rush to get to the track.
Stickered up Saab in the Porsche Curves Campsite
BBQ’s at various locations are now fully ablaze and this brings an atmospheric light smoke screen around the track. The drivers must hate this, but it makes for amazing sights in the beams of the cars passing you. The smell of the many BBQ’s makes us hungry and being BBQ-less we cast off a few beers for the aperitif of dinner then head out of the campsite, jumping on one of the many road trains passing right outside the campsite and head to the south entrance. There is a fully equipped restaurant in the main area and this can cater for many people, but we thought approx £25 for each main dish was not inline of what Le Mans is all about so we grabbed some meat wraps on offer from one of the many food retailers and topped up our plastic Le Mans glasses with beer. In hindsight, we should have taken advantage of the exclusive food tent at the campsite. Oh well.
Our campsite from the viewing bank
Darkness had now enveloped the track and the night section of the race was now underway. More long exposure shots were taken, and now there was a mini competition developing amongst ourselves to who is taking the best shots. Dunlop Bridge wass looking great with it all lit up, so we headed over there, whilst taking note that partying was taking place in the Audi hospitality area.
Crossing the Dunlop Bridge we found ourselves in front of a huge music stage, not too dissimilar to ones found at music festivals, with a huge crowd going wild to the music being blasted out. Flags were being waved, water was being sprayed, music was pumping, this is where the party was! I muscled into the mass of the crowd and got myself pretty close to the stage off to the left. Grabbing pictures here was pretty cool, the light show and smoke gave a good backdrop to highlight the electric atmosphere.
When Paul joined us from a stint in the media centre he gave us an update on what had been going on around the track up to this point: especially the Rockenfeller crash leading to a long safety car period, not a pretty sight, plus other various other instances. Amazingly “Rocky” was OK, so all was good on the track again.
We all agreed some more trackside viewing was needed, as we hadn’t really been looking for some time, so we headed over to look back up at Dunlop Bridge to our right and look out to the bends that proceed it. An amazing long shot of the cars passing was viewed, with engine popping with lift off throttle and gear changes. This led to lots of silent agreement amongst us all with scrunched up faces with smiles and nodding. This was proper stamina both in engineering terms and human fitness.
Trackside view
Sunday 12th June
Time was flying by. By about 2am the temperature had dropped and there weren’t many people trackside with us. Some small groups of people were asleep in their sleeping bags while sitting in camping chairs.
With the race settling down in to a rhythm we decided to go back over the bridge and go to the main bar area. We arrived to be met with the mandatory “Irish” bar heaving with dancing people and drinks flowing. We decided to absorb the atmosphere for a while at this point.
We were now losing our step and agreed that it would be a brilliant idea to go back to the campsite and set up a mini camp on the Porsche curves with the use of the air bed and sleeping bags. We put this plan into practice. With consideration to our fellow campsite members, we gathered all that was necessary and walked the few yards to set up. Again this was the perfect location for a campsite at Le Mans.
We were greeted with only a handful of Le Mans fans trackside, so we set up at a premium position and one that was just as the cars lifted off for moment then accelerated again, nice sounds. Many pictures were taken and as I looked to my left I could see that the sun was slowly rising, due to the turquoise colour of the sky. A few conversations were had with fellow hardened fans that were up at this small hour. After some time I pulled my sleeping bag over myself and fell asleep.
Morning at the track
I woke with the sun up, it must have been about 6am and I thought to myself that the tent would be a better environment for a couple of hours before the full showdown of Sunday morning. I was back there in a few minutes and sound asleep.
I had the mini ear radio (issued to us by Travel Destinations upon arrival) in my ear which was tuned in to Radio Le Mans. Travel Destinations also give all campers some other useful bits and pieces, tea bags, bottle openers, that sort of thing, all in a rucksack you can take round with you. This dedicated English radio station (Radio Le Mans) allowed me to quickly gather up the latest results and bring myself up to speed. The commentary is excellent with ongoing driver interviews and trackside reports plus other historical stories discussed, very engrossing. The one thing you couldn’t escape was it was all down to one Audi to beat the defiant Peugeots, with one of the Peugeot cars only a few minutes behind him. “A few minutes gap” I exclaimed to Jim, “A few minutes?” , “This is crazy, there has been 18 hours of flat out racing and they are still on each other bumpers”.
As the morning progressed, we decided to go back up to the curves to see the last few hours of the race. Showers were taken in the onsite showers; quite busy with late-risers but still surprisingly clean. We missed the breakfast which we could have purchased in the onsite bar, but that was only our fault for being slightly out of kilter with a normal operational time frame. After eating some of the travel food from the back of the car for breakfast and a glug of water, we headed back. The crowd was buzzing, with everyone watching for which car came around the corner first; the Audi or Peugeot.
Morning at the circuit
The race panned out with Audi winning the race by the smallest of margins. Notwithstanding some underhand driving skills by a lapped Peugeot blocking the Audi in the closing stages, plus also a small bout of light rain, enough to upset other category drivers and bringing some tension to the team managers. Imagine driving at race speeds for so long just to slam your car off the track in the last few hours, you would be gutted. Knowing that some of the cars stayed out on slicks brought another round of manly agreement amongst our group that this is a proper race, with amazing skill laid thick around the circuit.
Paul came back to meet us at the campsite, with a big grin on his face. “What do you think lads? good isn’t it? Le Mans is amazing huh?” Paul set the plan out to walk down out onto the track and back up to the start/finishing area. We all followed with anticipation. This experience was not expected but is open to everyone. We passed the wall which a Corvette decided to kiss, the skid marks and side swipe marks on the wall brought home the realities of racing, and you could almost feel the crunch. Arriving at the pit lane we noted all the golden ticker tape which lay around the winner’s area which allowed ourselves just to take in what this race is truly all about and the history that lay in front of us was glorious.
Paul then suggested we grab the car and do a tour of the public road section of the circuit. When we arrived back at the campsite there was a huge crowd in the exclusive beer tent on the Travel Destinations campsite. This was due to pending broadcast of the Canadian Grand Prix being shown on their big screens. Staff were on hand taking orders for drinks and light snacks from people and passing them through the crowds. Very efficient I thought, and everyone was chatting away to everyone else in great spirits. If you watch such things, the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix was dominated by Jenson Button, due to the fact the race was drenched in rain and he is a wet track racing master. I spoke to a number of fellow fans in the tent and it seems to me that I am not alone to say that the Le Mans 24 hour race is an annual pilgrimage and an event that gets under your skin. Half way through the F1 race (about the time you normally doze off on the sofa back home) Paul suggested we should continue with our touring plan. Dan elected to stay back at the campsite, due to being tired, enjoying the beer and the superior service.
Night view
We got onto the public road section of the track and with Paul’s commentary of speed and braking points, plus engine and tyre squealing noises to add to the effect, I felt I was a Le Mans driver – just. Hitting the straights we hurried the car through the gears up to interesting speeds, but noted in the distance the Gendarmerie sitting on the side of the road to the left, lifting off the throttle we passed the long arm of the law without any turmoil. Paul hailed the pending approach of the crash site of Rockenfeller. It was blatantly obvious where he ended his race, so we pulled over on the right-hand side of the straight, got out and ran over to look at the repaired barrier and catch net. The destruction was amazing; the forces must have been horrific. Paul saw some small pieces of carbon fibre and other space age material on the ground. Whilst Paul and I collect these small fragments, we saw a number of Porsches, a VXR8 and other speed demon stuff come hurtling down the straight, to then turn around and repeat the performance. Looked like they were enjoying themselves, it was a good sight I must be honest. We carried on further up the straight to be greeted to the right-hand corner, leading to a left at Indianapolis. There was a big gathering of fans and their cars at this area; they were cheering on other fans cars which were getting their cars tail out around these bends. I gave our Saab a bit of stick, riding the curbing on one side then the other, with cheers erupting. Passing the crowd, the anchors were applied; we had to get back across France you know.
It was Saturday evening now as we returned to the campsite. This was where we found out that leaving Dan to his own devices with Beer wasn’t the most genius moment. Dan came over to our camping area slurring somewhat and trying to describe the F1.I still can’t tell you what he said. We all hit the sack early with the sound of engines still echoing in our ears.
Camping at the Porsche Curves
Monday 13th June
Rising late on Monday found many people around us already having left. We packed the car, said our goodbyes to the Travel Destinations staff and hurried ourselves back onto the peage and pointed home. The journey home was uneventful really, broken up by a small number of interesting cars to view en route. It was a time for deep thought about what a marvellous time we had. We had formed a unit which now will be returning in time honoured fashion for many years to come.
Even if you’re not into cars or anything mechanical, I must insist that people go to Le Man, it is something that just gets under your skin very quickly. A festival for petrolheads yes, but so much more than that. Thank you Travel Destinations you’ve got us hooked!
Written by Nick Hulin
Fairground at Le Mans
Nick and his friends stayed with us at our private campsite at the Porsche Curves. If you would like to join us at the next Le Mans 24 Hours contact us now on 0844 873 0203 or email us at info@traveldestinations.co.uk
