I t W as O nly, 24 H ours @ L e M ans

Sunday - later

Isn’t sleep wonderful.

Up with the lark. Well hardly. Fresh croissants, strong coffee. French bread, very runny cheeses, the sun shining - life just can’t get better.

Back at the race circuit they were still at it, with BMW & Toyota battling it out. The BMW vehicles were slower but more reliable and used less fuel so filled up less often. Looked as it was going to be an exciting finish. It takes a while to get used to the shere length of this race. The radio announcer was saying how many hours were left "About the same as 2 ½ Grand Prix races!".

The leading Toyota was possibly going to catch the BMW race leader when it possibly picked up a sharp piece of carbon fibre and a rear tyre blew out on the Mulsanne straight. The inboard camera being remotely operated swung round to the drivers face commendably quickly.

The Japanese driver had Formula One experience, it was a good thing. His face was a picture of concentration and fear as he fought the steering at 200 mph to control the car, and won. In a magnificent piece of driving he gained control and nursed the car back to the pits to cheers and clapping from all, even though Toyota was now not going to pose a threat to BMW. They took a good time to fix the car, checking that the rear was not damaged before it returned to the circuit.

At last the race was over and we scrambled over the barrier and onto the race track to be with the crowd as the drivers picked up their awards. A thronging mass of happy humanity - great atmosphere.

There was going to be no hurry. We were not heading north until Monday morning and didn’t want to get stuck in the traffic so after wandering about for a bit we returned to the car and sat down on the grass in the sun. Peter Grant who we had met last year had managed to get his Stag to Le Mans, but it was suffering from a warped cylinder head and when hot looked like a demented tea urn. He was giving a lift to Laurie & Richard, a father & son whose Spitfire was reluctant to release its clutch, thus making gear changing a challenging and noisy experience. Nobody said anything about Triumphs and reliability - what a nice bunch we are.

Peter knows the local roads well and was going to drive away from the general flow of traffic as he thought the roads including the circuit would be open soon after the race was over, giving us a quick & straight route back. I spied an HRG and drove the TC over to take some photos of them together. A little later the owner came back so I had a word. He is Richard Clark from Wakefield, a friend of Alistair Naylor. The car was built in 1937 and thus was probably designed about the same time as the T type. It goes to Le Mans regularly.

After about an hour of lazing in the evening warmth (isn’t life hard) we left the car park, turning right, away from the main flow of traffic and drove to the Proche corner that we had visited in the early hours, the race road was open so onto the track and up to the main road to Ecommy.

Back at the camp site, a quick wash & brush-up was followed by a relaxing evening at a local restaurant that seemed to have been taken over by the Brits for the evening, including a group from the site who all had Westfield "almost, but not quite" Lotus 7s.

and so, the journey home....