le mans 24hrs 2006 - race week.

Le Mans race week was going to be crazy but even more than I expected. I drove down on Sunday to Le Mans arriving early evening with Vincent the SR9 project manager. His native lingo would assist massively with the strict paper work at signing on and scruiteering the following day, which occurs in Le Mans town centre. The Motorhome trip had been pretty entertaining with my girlfriend Karen on catering duties and Phil Quaife who I won 16 races with last season on sleep duty!

Monday afternoon arrived and myself and Joao headed off into town for scrutiny etc. The crowds were pretty amazing considering it was only scrutineering, almost a week before the race...! The SR9 was put on display while we waited and it did gather a rather large crowd viewing its sleek lines. However it wasn't the only thing to gather a crowd, apparently a racing driver stood next to a hire car in his boxers putting on his race suit, also attracted a large collection of autograph hunters...talk about embarrassed!

Wednesday action commenced and Qualifying started at 19.00 going late into the night. Again this added to my lack of mileage as the track conditions with terrible. Martin decided we would all just do our minimum 3 laps driving in the dark and park up out of the rain. Thursday was the day for me, I had a flying lap in the daylight and then half a dozen in the dark. Not surprisingly I was lapping faster in the dark as I settled into the SR9.

Friday was all action with the drivers parade in Le Mans town centre. The crowds were massive, so much so it took almost 2 hours to get into the town centre! Once there we located our chauffeur, a thirties Bentley which was very cool considering the SR9 designer Peter Elleray designed the Bentley Speed 8.

The parade was pretty amazing with thousands of people after autographs and wishing us well for the race. I managed to spot a lot of familiar faces including my Dad who had just arrived! Imagine you've just been part of the FA Cup winning Football team and your returning home via open top bus... Thats the closest thing to the Le Mans drivers parade! What an experience!

Next up race time! Well after some more parading and photos on the startline!

Regards