Club Arnage

Another fantastic trip, stories to tell over the next few days by Club Arnagers.  Here is a photo of the artist formerly known as zarse enjoying "one" final libation in Deauville, about 06:00 Monday morning having an early breakfast with the casino dancers.!(http://)

He looks like he had a hard weekend  ;)

 >:( hard came later on when it was time to get on the ferry!

Ah! Mr Catchpole! how nice of you to remind us of  the breakfast refreshment and dancing girls.

Had a truly memorable weekend. Camped up with a great bunch of people, JPC, Ferrari Spider, Gibb, Steve Brown, Andy, Rick, Norbert and his mob, Barry and family. The racing was wonderful, the cars were unspeakably fabulous, the weather was perfect and the beer was cold. But the highlight for me, the absolute apex, was blagging our way through the pit garages and spending half an hour on the pit wall. Just awsome seeing a Lola T70, Chevron B16 and a GT40  passing three abreast, flat out and but a few feet away with no catch fencing to obscure the view. I'd say we were priveliged to be at the heart of Le Mans. Except we weren't supposed to be there at all!

On the social side, we all had a good time, drinking at the track was not too excessive, although a good few were sunk over the weekend. Our big night  out was Sunday in Deauville. After a wonderfully quick drive through the lovely summer countryside, me, Steve Z, JPC and Ferrari S went out on the lash. This involved a nice meal, wine, a trip to Deauville Casino to lose some money, a trip to the ultra exclusive Club Y nightspot (where we met the dancing girls from the Casino) and a cider brekky in a local cafe. Which was all fine and dandy until I was woken at 11.00 am by the cleaner hoovering our bedroom. We had a ferry to catch some 100kms away in Dieppe and clearly we were not going to make it. So I did what all self respecting folk would do: go back to bed for another hour. Had a pleasant breaky with JPC and FS said our goodbyes, went shopping and got the 18.00 Seacat to Newhaven.

Crowds at Classic were up 64% on 2002, it's reckonned about 50,000 people attended which is nearly as many spectators as at the French GP! Success of the event seems assured, so, Roll on 2006!

Here are a few more shots.(http://)

Rick doing what rick does at race meetings

the artist always known as Steve, his chum the artist formerly known as Andy Zarse and JP mines a large one, enjoying the racing from the pitwall.(http://)

Excellent... with that spectator figures they may even organise it as a yearly event, fingers crossed.

Congratulations on top notch piece of blagging, well done. Mrs Bill said on Thursday "Whyn't ya go, you know you ought to?" she was right wasn't she? Damnit I wish I had sold the car or summat. Glad you had a great time.... Roll on 2006 exactly! But I will be there next June and no missing out the shampoo bar then either.
:) :) :)

Bill

Awesome weekend! ;D ;D ;D Must quickly send out some thanks:

to Gibberish for meeting us at the entrance to MB at 4am on Saturday with our tickets and then leading us directly to our tent (allbeit sideways),
to the kind CAers who erected our tent for us, to save us doing it at 4am,
to Rick for the use of the tent pegs,
to Peter for my first ride in a Ferrari (and a Great Night Out in
Deauville/Trouville),
to Mark(JPC) for the JD (and a Great Night Out in Deauville/Trouville),
and to Norbert & co, Barry Jo & family, Steve Brown and Andy for all the campsite/trackside amusement.

It was incredible to be on that pit wall with all those beautiful machines blatting past merely inches away ;D. Met Johnny Herbert 8) (although I suppose that was inevitable with JPChenet around!).  Played in the All New Zarse vs JPC Pool Challenge for the Over Refreshed (although I can’t for the life of me remember who won). ???

All in all, I can, and will forthwith, vigorously recommend the Classic Le Mans to all and sundry. Vive Le Mans!
 ;D ;D

We were truly suckling at the nipple of the bosom of Sweet Mother Le Mans. What a fabulous racing car! You should have heard it to...

Mr Artist, are u referring to the lady walking passed the tail of the 512?

No mate, it was the cars that were tootin' my horn at that particular moment in time.

We know what tooted your horn,

THIS:

I've now recovered from the drive back and must say what a damn good time we all had.
In between the beveraging and yahooing, we actually saw a bit of the racing.

The highlight for me was the paddock access pass ACO members were given.  This allowed us to get right up under the hood of all the spanner action and meet some of the stars of the motoring world.
Myself and Mr Spider were wandering around the paddocks at 2 am on Saturday morning and noticed Phil Hill (who is a fair age now) still with his racing gear on, taking a hands on interest in the fettling and tuning of his ride for the weekend.

Myself and Andy 2 cobras also had many moist moments looking at all the AC Ace's, 289's and Daytona coupes  :P.

I'm sorting my photos and will upload them for all to see in due course.

Here's some of the merry men :

FS, Gib, Rick C, JPC and Andy 2 cobras

He's the Pit Wall invaders

What a weekend!!!!  Too many highlights to post them all.

Special thanks to Ferrari Spider, not just for the lift down but for letting me drive the 348 down the Peage from Alencon to Le Mans. And then being his passenger when we drove the full circuit on Saturday afternoon. I felt like a Cheshire Cat as we drove out of the Bugatti Circuit and drove down the Pit Straight. And driving down the Mulsanne, Indianapolis and Arnage will never be the same again. And I'm not sure how I'm going to get into the pits in June during the racing but I'm going to have damned good try!!

Barry and Jo for having cold beers waiting when we arrived on Friday, Great comany in the form of Steve Brown esq., Andy 2 Cobras, Rick, Gibberish, Steve Zarse, Andy Zarse, Bear Zarse, Team Bobblehat minus Bobblehat (Should have gone to SpecSavers!!) and the Dutch couple camping behind us.

I'm dead jealous. Spent Sat night returning from Majorca.

Next year maybe...

Just to add to some of the highspots.

Fantastic company all through the weekend, its what the club is about.  Looking at the cars in the paddock during the small hours with Steve Brown and coming across Phil Hill working with his mechanics at 2 am.

Finding gibberish at 3 am standing stag, though asleep at his post, waiting for Team Zarse arrival.  Company fizzer on its way Gibb.

Finding clean showers and no queues anytime of the day, our secret.

Al Fresco dinner on Saturday night.

The cars.

Track laps.

Drinking in the ACO club bar in the pits and watching the grand prix

Speaking with Johnny Herbert and getting some first hand advice from him about the circuit.  "use the kerbs".

Cruising with club arnargers.

The drive to Deauville and our 24 hour stay, is it possible to do so much in such a short space of time?  I was impressed with our gambling duo, two different systems derived over years of practice with exactly the same result.  The casino and watching a dance routine with ukulele's The Dickens gay bar, the Y club, seeing David Brett in person, breakfast.

Oh and have I mentioned Track Laps.

The artist Zarse preparing to leave the casino.

Note for June nexty year. Must find a club in Deauville that stays open later than 5am so A Zarse doesn't get upset about it closing too early!!! Thank goodness for the little cafe bar that was open 24 hours.

Interesting policy on alcahol though. None is served after 5am............except Cider or large Jamesons!!

here are the dancing ladies going through their paces, met them later on at the Y club and then taken onto breakfast, cider, chip butty.(http://)

I can only echo all the points already said. It was great being a passenger for the first time and getting my first ride in a Ferrari convertible. Thanks very much to Team Bobble Hat for the lift into arnage and the company over the weekend. Zarse crew for the colder beers than we were managing!! The Barry family for the entertainment of watching Steve Brown reading bedtime stories to Barry's children. Really enjoyed the weekend and sad to be back at home.

A suggestion made in the closing hours of the weekend is that we have a weekend in the UK for just drinking and eating. We had to drag ourselves away from camp to watch the racing as the entertainment we were providing was just as good.

See you all soon again I hope.

Guys,

Only Rick was sporting his CA T Shirt.

Poor show really.


I have a new range of goodies for display soon. Wearing them at LM is obligatory

At the time of that photo yes, but you'll be pleased to know that at various times during the weekend we were all parading in our CA finest.
The Saturday 4 pm assembly was a sea of CA.

However, sweat and spillage necessitated a change of attire once in a while  ::)

(http://www.lachope.com/photos/leffe/leffe_verre_bouteille.jpg)

Steve reading to Barry's children!

Pit Envasion:-

Team Zarse sporting CA T-Shirts

A truly wonderful occasion.  I've already posted my pictures on other threads (they are obvious), but just to say thaknks to eveyone mentioned above for a fantastic time, and puting up with my knackered knees.

Rugrat Racing Team finally got home from LM, after a great weekend at the event and an enjoyable week at the beach.

Good to meet everyone who up untill then had just been names on the site, it was a pleasure to spend the weekend it such great company. Jo is now into car racing and is coming with me to Silverstone for the LMES, sans kids thank God ;D

A special thanks to Steve and Gibberish for babysitting James while I was packing up, and his mother was swanning around in a black and tan Ferrari, Gibberish I hope you are feeling better after that nasty head butt you recieved from James :'(.

And thankyou Peter for taking Jo out in the spider, Jo has now twigged that road cars are not just for getting from A to B ;D

Jo says there was only one thing louder than the cars, waking up on Friday night with me snoring next to her, and Gibberish snoring on a chair outside, taking a catnap while heroically waiting for Team Zarse to arrive. Don't know what she's talking about, I don't snore  ;)

Hope to see you all at Silverstone, Jo and I are arriving Saturday morning and camping overnight, but leaving early on Sunday, a devils agreement to get the kids looked after so we can have a drink or two on Saturday.

Cheers

Glad to hear you and the family had a good time Barry.

How was "Les Ecureuils"

Good to hear you all had a great time. See you in ten days time. Should be in the Commer, by popular demand, if I can get the wheel studs fixed.

Excellent site, with great facilities a good atmosphere and mix of nationalities. I would strongley recommend it if you are camping in this area again.

Not a problem at all dear boy.  ;D  Although it is rather worrying to hear that I snore in a seated position, as well as the more regular lying down pose.  ::)

Most definately, from the noise you were making in the back seat of my car on the way home.

Welcome home Barry and family.

Oops!   :-[