Club Arnage

For the first time since 1999 I missed a race...
Somehow, listening to the build up on RLM while at work and watching what I could on Eurosport (I finally got to watch the last three hours this morning) is not the same..

I will never make the mistake of allowing 'Something else' to get in the way again.

Bring on 2012... ;D ;D

Start planning today ;)

Planning started about 10 minutes into the RLM webcast last Monday Barry... ;D

I know the feeling it's been absolute torture this passed week being at home. Thank heavens for Eurosport and RLM to keep me going ;D

Anyway planning has started for next year already ;D

At the risk of sounding 'wierd'
I spent a lot of time analysing what it really was about Le Mans that was missing by not being there.

Watching the race on TV and listening to RLM covered one 'Part' of it
But it’s everything else that goes with the race.

It’s the buildup that starts a couple of months before the race.
It’s the early morning start for the ferry.
It’s the ‘Traditional’ breakfast stop on the way down.
It’s the run down to the circuit, and seeing all the ‘Familiar’ sights and knowing each one moves you nearer.
It’s the campsite setup, the trips to Carrefour/Super U and just the experience of sitting there with the cars not far away…
It’s wandering around at 3am  during the race, cursing the fact that I don’t have a jumper with me, my feet are killing me and I’m knackered, but I’m still looking for new places to see the race.

It’s the intangible things that you can't replicate or explain properly that make the whole thing an event.

Same here. The first time in nine years that i stayed home. I decided at the start that as long as there is breath in my body I will never again miss a year.

There were a few good things about staying home. Firstly i watched a good few hours with my dear daughters. They really got into the race this year. They both wore their T shirts from last years race all weekend. The eldest (six) stumbled into the room before 6am on sunday to carry on viewing. She now wants to be an engineer like Audi's Leena Gade.

Another plus was rather unexpected. My wife always gives me loads of hassle every year in the run up. She hates it when i go on 'holiday' with my friends each year. Last night she told me that if i ever stay at home during Le Mans i will be strangled alive, and suggested we booked next years ferry straight away.

Every cloud has a silver lining!

I had to miss this year due to being asked to be the photographer for a friends wedding on Friday, and yes i was gutted to have to miss Le Mans and break my 1995 - 2010 run of attending the race. But missing the race also gave me the opportunity to attend the Dukeries Rally which was taking place in the same area the following day, so I marshaled on the first stage of the day and watched / took photos on SS5 in the afternoon before going on to Kings Lynn to watch the BriSCA F1 British Championship in the evening. On the way home the next day I called in at the Bolton Motorsport Festival for a quick look.

I may have been stood in the middle of a forest covered in thick dust on Saturday afternoon, but at 2 pm UK time, i found myself stood there visualizing each car going past me on the start straight as the race got underway, and the noise each car would make as it went past. You can take me away from the race, but you can't take the race away from me.

Why do they still run the Dukeries on LM weekend? It used to be a real favourite event of mine. It must be 10 years since i watched that event and it always had a good entry. I actually competed in the early 90's in a pinto engined group 1 spec Escort. We finished against a tree in Clipstone South whilst second in class and just outside the top ten. It pissed it down all day but i remember the dust from other years.

you forgot the gran marnier crepes
manky frites at 2am watching  down at tetre rouge or arnage

welcome to my club :) (see signature below!)

Is there a T-Shirt or a secret sign Brad? ;D ;D

me and 3 friends are already planning and put our names down for tickets for 2012 :)

Standard Issue Special Sock. (SISS)

Although - Kev has a massive collection of these

We had one you could bang tent pegs in with this year.

Sounds familiar, for some reason that now escapes me I didn't go in 2004 (after picking up again in 2000 after missing out for years due to lack of money), but after being like a bear with a sore head all weekend my wife told me that never again was I to miss LM!  So whilst missing a year is traumatic, it can work out for the best ;D

Be careful though, my wife "tolerated" Brad and I's planing and going to LM. Then, when we had a bit of money to spare, she booked a long weekend of shopping in New York for her and our daughters on the basis that I had spent the same amount on our LM trips. The reality is that we are still catching up on what they spent, so it wasn't such a bad thing, points in the bank.

I stiil hear the holiday word every year even though this year was my 20th. Every year I say "It's not a holiday, it's Le Mans" but every year she insists that it is a holiday. What holiday has she ever been on where most of it is spent in a sometimes sodden field surrounded by inebriated noisy people and only averaging 2 or 3 hours sleep a night. Christ on a bike she has even seen photographic evidence to prove my point. Her idea of a holiday is a luxury hotel with flunkies pandering to her every need. Holiday my arse, it has alway been Le Mans, and it always will be.

Have to agree Bob.  I've tried explaining to people we don't go to Le Mans because we want to!   I suspect that given the choice we wouldn't go.  However,  Thereis no choice.  In reality we HAVE to go.  I've tried explaining it but they just don't get it!

I once heard a guy say about Le Mans "Show me a sane person and I'll cure them!"

t.

My wife is off on her girly weekend. She leaves on the Friday when the festival of speed starts.
Now what should I do  ;D ;D

What's a girly weekend?   ???

Dx

Change the locks, barricade the doors, and dig a trench in the garden for her return...??

and add some of those glass mines the germans used in WW2

That's why bottles were banned!