Club Arnage

Despite the usual SPS  Crew antics, damaged cars and injuries this year, we were told a VERY nasty story which goes against all that Le Mans means to me.

Whilst my sister and her chap were enjoying the atmosphere and thrilss of their TVR, they took part in 3 burn outs before heading back ag=fter a long and enjoyable day out in the coutryside.

They were stopped just before entering MB, at the Blue Sud area. They were actioned to burn out, but felt they had done their bit and so declined.

With this 3 people sprayed them with lots of water - not so bad as it was very hot.

Exeption was taken to the TOSSER who poured RED WINE all over my sister, the car and interior and shouted some rather nasty comments. ( those who have met kate are aware she not like me, and is a pleasant lady - not a whore )

They couldnt go anywhere as some french man had gone past them and blocked her in.

She was visbly upset and shacken, her fella was fuming and my crew wanted some revenge.

WHY ??

Shameful. In answer to why? Little inadequate boys with small dicks, who can't handle drink, or cope with a young lady in a muscle car.

These sorts of antics are simply not required.  

t.

I saw two events within about 10 minutes outside MB on Friday which very nearly ended in tears. In both events drivers took offence at being sprayed full on in the face at close range with super soakers. Can't say I blame them.

In the first one the guy leapt out of the (French, non high performance) car to "remonstrate" with the offender. A guy eventually got between them and prevented a fight, then as the car drove away he kicked the car.

Shortly after, another driver made to get out of the car to see to the idiot but the coward quickly melted into the crowd...


I remember having a bit of a rant against super soakers here last year when a new car with cream leather got absolutely soaked by some small kid, who's dad was incredibly aggressive when it was suggested to him that maybe he should advise his kid of the difference between a bit of fun and criminal damage.

I have the impression that the few last years that kind of "hooligan" behaviour has increased.

It has always been fun and the french police are not that bad, as most of the time they will tolerate the burnouts and power slides . However, those aggressive pricks will ruin it for everyone else and the fun atmosphere of Mad Friday will slowly disappear.  

Hi Smokie & Robbo good to meet you two last week. I had a bit of an experience with the soakers, getting it straight in the eye doing about 30mph, a bit painful I can tell you. However the culprits didn't seem to happy with the half dozen stink bombs lobbed at them by my passenger.

It's very sad to hear of all this.
These are the major reasons why, when we cruise in and out of the circuit to HA, we avoid the road between MB and Bleu Sud and also the HA back roundabout.

However, there's some fairly large, 'handy', blokes in our group who would definatley take offence to a full face of water.

Why do onlookers not realise that not every driver is without any care and responsiblility for their tyres, vehicle and the potential injury to onlookers, and hence doesn't want to play.

My cobra has an auto trans and, without doing some nifty left foot braking, is a bit tricky to do static burnouts.  When I've managed it, the car has a tendancy, due to the limited slip diff, to suddenly hook up a tyre and slew to the left or right - okay if there's no one alongside!

The only alternative is a rolling burnout and people tend to stand in front - so, I don't bother at all and keep well away.  Plus I need a bit of tread on my tyres to get home with.

We got a small taste of these dickheads when we arrived at BSJ at 1am friday morning after the crappest day in history ( see Tales of Le Mans 2005 thread ). Out of the darkness a drunken yob starts yelling " I hate Porsches, I f*****g hate porsches". We took it as extreme, stella fuelled banter and carried on but this guy came out from his camp and started pointing his finger at us " You c****, you f*****g w******....etc etc". You could see in his face that he wanted bother - not banter. He actually followed us for a short distance shouting obsenities .Now, we laughed it off (privately - there was no communication with this idiot) over the wise crack that if you don't like porsches Le Mans might be a very tough weekend, but it is the first time in 8 years I ever felt in anyway intimidated by someone at LM. It reminded me off walking past Yates' wine bar at kicking out time!Luckily, when we pulled up to pitch  tent we were met by a drunken bunch of proper fans - all strangers, who straight away helped with putting the tent up and plied us with cold beer - faith was restored instantly. Le Mans has always been about much more than the race - its the characters that you meet and the comaraderie (sp?) that we all share. Sure, with all that comes some hi-jinx and jolly japes.
Smashed windows, wine poured into cars and super soakers emptied into them will just stop people bringing their motors to the campsites - lets face it, some of these cars are worth in excess of 100 grand. Not that the value is relevant, its about respecting peoples property and knowing where the line should be drawn.
Christ, I sound like an old man!

Sorry to hear about the trouble your sister had Robbo, I saw you just by the hypermarket after another bit of bother you where having. I hope that got sorted in your favor.

I think it won't be long before there is a fatal crash of some sort at the Houx Annexe roundabout, and like Steve B we keep well clear when driving. This year there was an undercover copper (he still had a gun and cuffs, but no uniform) watching the goings on riding a trails bike.

Judging by some of the antics I think a stonger police presence will be made next year. Attacking an ACO lorry with beer bottles and giving the driver a load of abuse was not the smartest move either.

You could be right about next year Nordic. The last time I went there I saw a middle aged woman seriously injured when a Renault 5 driver lost it on the roundabout and hit her. The police broke up the crowd and it did sound a lot quieter for a few years, until this year when it sounded full on even at the far end of HA. Next year will probably see a large old bill presence to stop it getting out of hand.
 
I am all for people having a good time and a laugh but not at the expense of someone getting hurt or even killed.
It seems to be a regular thing to do this on Mad Friday and if it was banned at one location it would only move on to another. Why not install armco and marshall it, it could then be monitered by the police and stopped if it gets more dangerous than it already is.

What appears to be happening here is an extension of the weekend binging/looking for a fight/smack any one that I dont like mentality that we see every weekend on our streets. Its not just about being drunk its about looking for trouble. Some of our group including me were the worse for wear on the Thursday but we just kept on staggering around the track looking for the way back to the tent and keeping ourselves to ourselves
At one time it was only about lighting up the tyres and eccentrics getting upto all sorts of other relatively innocent things but with respect shown for those who just wanted to get on their way but it now seems well out of hand.
I dont mind putting the Se7en sideways or giving it some gas but only when I want to. Its never totally safe to do even this however and I dont feel confident enough to do huge powerslides or doughnuts to order. On the track then ok but not when there are drunken idiots around.
Wasnt there an incident at Houx this year with a truck driver?
Did any one else see the nutters on the road to Gucelard on the Friday evening? There were about 6 blokes totally starkers wandering all over the main road.
In many ways the locals are extremely tolerant of the antics, it must really piss people off seeing the state of the roundabout in Arnage after each night including Sunday.

Two years ago there was quite a lot of police on the HA roundabout, which kept things more or less "safe".

This year, apart from 3 undercover cops, the police were almost absent.
I only saw one BMW driver being cautioned, but they let the troublemakers alone.

Thought :

Get  Team JPC's Rotty for close protection ??

MArk any comments

Some dimbrained twat (Not a REAL t w a t!) was shooting paintballs at the windscreens of cars at the HA roundabout. He missed often! He was about to die before it got cooled off but he didn't have a clue what those things can do to peoples eyes.
He needed Police action there and then and I hope they do take a hand again, totally effin stupid behaviour.

Now I sound even worse than my usual old woman bit...

For the past few years we've negotiated the HA roundabout on Friday evening unscathed - this year was a bit nasty, my sons best friend returned an unexploded water bomb straight into [I think] someones face.

All this was on the approach to the roundabout from the north heading to Entrance Sud. After this all the windows went up and I floored it across the roundabout to be confronted by a race coming the other way, swerved around the oncoming Civic Type R  and breathed a sigh of releif.

Was I wrong to go that way?...... maybe...well yes I suppose.

Will I go that way next year on Friday?..... No.

Did I care that some innocent got a water bomb in the face - No I was pretty pissed with them all.

Robbo I agree with you entirely - This is not what It's all about

D.A.

I was at the roundabout that friday night and i would say that it was all alright untill you get some idiot like the 2 in the civic type r's or the guy in the silver audi a3 who take it a bit far and keep coming back for more. Fair enough you go round the roundabout a couple of times with the tyres smokin you dont need to come back again and again. And also the idiot in the transit van, if anyone saw that they will agree he was nearly toppling over. But to be honest it is a laugh but it went a bit far this year and next year i can see something happening. But as someone said you can put armcoe up cheaply and also just put some marshalls there and it should be more controllable. But if anyone has any pictures or videos can they please send them to me so i can show people back home what its like cos i was more worried about gettin hit by a car than taking pictures. It would be most appreciated. Thanks
jimmybob962@hotmail.com

First off, I too would like to say sorry to hear about your Sister Robbo, I met her at the Poo Bar and she seems to be a charming young lady.

I also witnessed the Friday night HA roundabout exploits. I have to agree that the "yob" mentality seems to be growing. I am probably going to sound like a pompous upper-class twit here, but I thought that a fair chunk of the crowd were of the type who have never worked a day in their lives and wait for the weekly state handout  >:( and I am talking about whole families here  :-\ Is it really required viewing for toddlers and babes in prams?

Add to that the appearance of "matched pairs" of cars like the civics and the Nissan's, and we are getting to the stage of holding UK style "street cruises" with all the grief and mayhem that they entail. If these Pratt's were as good at driving as they thought they were, they would be doing it on the track 100 meters away instead! In my youth I was a rally driver (with a fair bit of auto-testing thrown in) and I believe that I am quite capable of throwing a car around in circles, but there is absolutely no chance at all that you would catch me, or I hope any other competition driver, doing these stupid stunts in such close proximity to bystanders.

I thought that the way the crowd reacted when the French truck driver got out of his cab was appalling. The guy had just been caught square in the face by a huge super-soaker as he was driving a large artic round a packed roundabout, he had every right to be upset but I thought the crowd were going to lynch him  :o He was on his phone pretty fast, and I am really surprised that either the Gendarmes did not turn up, or a large bunch of beefy truckers  :P

The van driver was insane, and how the hell it failed to roll I don't know. And as for the idiot in the Audi......... he must have nearly gone into either the crowd or another vehicle more than a dozen times.

However, hats off to the coach driver, who with a fully loaded double-decker coach got into the spirit of things and did a complete circle of the roundabout (with a fair bit of lean on) and got the biggest cheer of the night.

Personally I think that the Gendarmes are going to have to make an appearance in force next year, and I think that all water pistols are going to need to be banned. They should simply confiscate them on the spot.

It may be an idea for the ACO to consider making some sort of official event for people to enter and show off their abilities, or in the case of the civics some head to head drag style racing. I guess there is two sides to this possibility, one the kudos of winning an official Le Mans event may help attract the idiots, or two the fact that it is official will mean they are not interested and they will find somewhere else to try and kill somebody. If the ACO or local Gendarmes wish to stop this, then it would be quite simple with the addition of UK style speed bumps, even the temporary rubber rumble strips should bugger up circuits of the roundabout.

OK, rant over. Now I would like to congratulate the relevant authorities on the cleanup job they did on the roundabout  ;D despite the amount of crap left the night before, I thought it was pretty clear when I next passed through.

That coach driver was excellent, no argument! Shame some of the car drivers won't live long enough to get the skills to drive that well!!!

The two cars that kept coming back to fail to hang it out  needed the drivers' heads looking at, totally useless. I enjoyed the spectacle, but the dangers were very alarming.

Some regulation soon seems likely.

 :)

bill

Couldn't agree more with a lot of this. I've been coming to Le Mans for 7 years and this was the first time I've seen people squaring up to one another. There just seemed to be more aggro and more dickheads this time round.

I was watching at Houx Annexe roundabout - most of it was pretty good, but one Elise got it wrong and hit the kerb - another couple of feet and he'd have wiped out a fair number of people.

It'll only take a couple of accidents and we'll end up with a situation like you get in the UK - with cars banned from the campsites, coppers everywhere and fun pretty much banned. And at the moment the locals seem to tolerate us pretty well, but if we give them grief that won't last either.

I love the outrageous side of Le Mans - but the dickgheads could spoil it for everyone.

I agree.  I can be a tad intimidating coming back from town on Friday night knowing that the drunken lot are there on that roundabout goading people to do whellspins etc.  I also noticed a slight rise in the number of non-motor racing fans coming along.  The following link is not from Le Mans, but indicates the type of people I am sterotyping  ;)

http://www.ayrshore.com/cruise2005/shore22042005/DSCF1861.JPG (http://www.ayrshore.com/cruise2005/shore22042005/DSCF1861.JPG)

Rotty and Pitbull are available for weddings, christenings, funerals, bar mitzvahs and parties biut they seem to be otherwise occupied with Tropicoma, DBR9's and TVR's during Le Mans  ;D

IMHO. They are not bad lads, and they are certainly not football hooligans. They are just over-enthusiastic kids off the leash having a what they consider to be a good time. Like all kids, they need to know where the boundaries lie.

It's entirely pointless bitching here after the event, they need to be put in their place at the time and be taught what is and isn't acceptable behaviour. If that means a few of them getting their heads cracked open, whether by the French constabulary or by the Rotty, The Brethren or whoever happens to be at hand, then so be it. I accept that it is intimidating if there is only a couple of people in a car but it must be possible for us Le Manners to police this ourselves in some ways.

Maybe some leaflets should be distributed on the day pointing out that squirting water in peoples eyes, threatening behaviour and destruction of private property is not acceptable and advising of the consequences of failure to abide by these simple rules.

People on here may disagree with this approach, but at least I am trying to suggest something positive before it ruins it for all of us. Somebody, surely, must have some ideas too.

Andy, whilst I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of your post, surely if push came to shove and the penalty was enforced, that would make us as bad or worse than the original offender.

Perhaps it would be better for the site in general (by this I mean CA) to approach the ACO and possibly come to some arrangement whereby we could "visually police" the campsites and play areas, as long as there was some method of us contacting the ACO and receiving official assistance to deal with the problems.

If we were to simply unload with the heavy stuff, I get to thinking the Gendarmes will be involved, but for the wrong reasons. It will also cause resentment and further trouble, which I feel is entirely what we need to stop.

Just my opinion anyway.

Tony.

I should add that the leaflet idea is a very good one though. Especially if explaining the seriousness of any potential accidents which could occur.

One minor fly in the ointment could be the combination of booze and bravado when being egged on by your mates.

In the cold light of day whilst sober it is easy to appreciate, having read a leaflet, the potential dangers of burnouts / water soakers / scooters etc.

However, when some of these placid individuals have had a few brews, they turn into the Incredible Hulk and have an immense problem seeing sense and reason.

(http://www.wildlifeautosport.org.uk/homepage/Motorsport%20is%20Dangerous.gif)

This might help ;)

Arh yes, but the stuff that goes on at the HA roundabout and outside Bleu ain't motorsport!

Here are a couple of things, this first is a video which is being shown around the net under the title "Tom Cruise OWNED". Personally, I think it is far from owning Tom, but actually shows how stupid water pistols can be, and what a nice person Tom appears to be.

Water Pistol Vid (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.jfj.wheeler/lm/cruisepunk.wmv)

This second clip, shows the sort of homemade firework we should consider taking next year to let off at the roundabout  ;)

Firework Vid (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.jfj.wheeler/lm/firework.wmv)

At least it's safe to say that the SPS will just keep to wrecking each others cars again next year!!
 ;D

You also got a picture of the MG with the smashed in window?  Robbo wrote some nice words on that one too. ;D

The list of damages read :

MG ZR160 - Rear side window, trimmings and pulley. Far side rear window pulley and cover plate. Both doors re-alligned and dent in roof removed, 4 large scratches taken from front door.

VX Zafira - New rear passenger door, and new paint job on front passenger door.

Trailer - New mud guard and metal holder after driver got a bit tired on way home. Plus a bit of paint for touch ups.




Not bad - Next year - Hire CARS !!

Thanks for the commets and mails / pms. I am a LM muppet as we all are, i just got a little upset over the wine thing. Everything else still goes, buurn outs, wtaer soakers and the like.

Maybe get trumpton to turn out next time ??

The MG window break in allits glory. You may have to register to view!!


http://www.lotusxifc.co.uk/videos.asp#

Its sad to hear about  the water rifle business. I took a bucket of water doing 20+mph on my go-ped outside Parking Bleu on the Friday, luckily managed to keep my balance but could of been nasty...saw several pissed of people in drenched Caterhams/soft tops in the traffic jams....not funny, and mindless pricks if you ask me....

Also got some abuse of a cliched british lout in BSJ.....just kept the gas on....sadly the only downside of our week where these prats which really give a bad name to what is otherwise a fantastic event. As the saying goes 'Theres allways 1!'.

Loutish behaviour was just not restricted to around the circuit and campsites on Friday either. We passed through Arnage on Friday afternoon (granted -always lively) But the gang of pissed Britts at the roundabout should be ashamed, we got behind a pair of Gendarmes on bikes and the barrage of abuse was shocking, several pissed idiots spilled out into the road mouthing off and making very rude gestures towards these two guys, one bloke spat at the rider nearest to us, hitting him on the shoulder and recieved a round of applause from his stupid friends. I'm sorry to say that amongst this crowd of w***ers was at least one Club Arnage shirt!!
 Why some people think its OK to give the French police a hard time I don't know, do these same arseholes behave like that back home?? If I'm not mistaken, we have a few members on here who uphold the law for a living, is it OK to abuse and spit at these fellow members???
 Yes we all like a laugh, but  I think things went a little too far this year. And if you are reading this and were amongst that group on Friday afternoon, may I sugest you F*** off and find another sport, Football starts in a few weeks, go on-sod off!

I have to agree that some people attitude towards the gendarmes is shamefull. The gendarmes might be the ones nicking us for speeding on our way to and from Le Mans, but you have to admit that they have a pretty laid back attitude towards the Mad Friday burnouts etc...
Over here, in Belgium, they would block off the roads, arrest all people just thinking of pushing the accelarator pedal and would have parliament voting on raising traffic fines once more.
Not wanting to go so far as saying "let's hear it for the gendarmes", let's all appreciate that they are not so bad after all.
So, those spitting etc... at the gendarmes, just F*** off !

It seems to be getting very sad these days. If we had Le Mans over here would our police be as tolerant as the Fench guys are considering we basically take over the large chunk of France we do? I have me doots.

To spit on the police shows a very nasty type of drunk, just like the drunken yobs that upset us in our camp.

Sadly it is too late to change the w**nkers but by god I hope the flics can get the political assistance to storm in to any hooligan elements and take them out of our hair too. Six months in clink seems reasonable.....

I need Le Mans every year as a pressure relief valve but I do not need to share it with scum.

 :(

Only an opinion, but I dont like being compared to trash like that  and of course we all are!

 :-[ Its a sad state of affairs, this topic was the main point of disscusion in our group.
It sickens me to think that a certain type of Brit has now found Le Mans, i enjoy Le Mans for escaping this sort and meeting more like minded people.

We saw a nasty ford fiesta with tea tray spoiler and neons crusing round the HA roundabout, need I say more. Oh and one guy told me that my car wasn't real because "it aint got one those big spoilers on the back"  ::) while standing in the middle of the road shouting 'w~#kers' at every passing car.

I fear it will get worse but hope it will be a passing fad.

Guess there will always be people misbehaving, no matter what nationality. Some people just always have to take it that one step further, and alcohol pushes them further (is not the main cause). Shame really, sometimes it goes all wrong and they have to pay for their mistake for years to come. Silly & stupid.



(oh dear, no I hope you guys think we were acceptable on MB ;D)

We stopped doing the following things about 3 years ago:

1. Camping - after laying in our tents petrified wondering if the next car/bike doing burnouts in the campsite (MB) was going to come through the side of the tent.

2. Driving the circuit after Wednesday - after getting soaked outside the resturants on Mulsanne (just for having the roof down), and again on the road outside MB after not doing a "burnout".

Yes we have a nice car (Boxster S). No I can't afford a new clutch/gearbox/whatever for the entertainment of others. Neither can I afford the legal problem if something went "wrong"...

And as for the lovely gentlemen who screamed drunkenly in my face as I sat in my car in traffic at Place-de-Jacobin last year "Go on give it some - you can f***ing afford it yah bast**d".

1. No I can't - I'm still paying for the car 4 years after buying it - and I have several years to go...
2. I know who my parents are - do you? ::)

Well said,

Not everyone who owns a nice car got it cos they are rich or have it as a company car!  I worked hard (and borrowed) to get my Aston, and still work hard to keep it just as you have.  I'm sure that there are a lot of enthusiasts at LM who are in the same boat and get treated the same way, but one by one we learn and stop going to the trouble spots.....

Having said that the few (off peak) times we drove through Arnage we nothing but great comments and cheery waves!  So it wasn't all bad ;D

Sir regrettably you do sound like a pompous twit. You state that many in the crowd were a bunch of low life’s (you were itching to say Chavs weren’t you?). You then go on to admit that you were part of the crowd that stayed there to witness much of what went on......therefore perpetuating the antics. Using your own judgmental based logic perhaps you should be tarred with the same brush.

I must confess that I did take a trip to the roundabout during the early evening and after only a few minutes could see that many of the people taking the tomfoolery too far were not the type that you would like to lay the blame with. We could see it was going to get out of hand so left.

It would be nice to think that such behaviour could be restricted to a certain element of society but I think you will find many of those participating were probably perfectly respectable people, behaving like kids.

Now now, mutual respect here please... Vigorous debate is OK but name calling isn't...

Hello 20VT, whilst you are quite welcome to call me a pompous twit (I did invite such in my post Smokie, thanks for the defence though  ;) ), I should point out that I did not mention that I was actually at the roundabout, simply that I witnessed it. I was in fact the other side of the fence in Houx Annexe having a drink with somebody, it just so happens that where they were camping meant there was a good view of what was happening.

 ;D :D ;) Yep I was itching to say Chavs, but I managed to restrain myself  8)


You are very possibly correct in this statement, but it does not mean that it is right. Having said that, I fail to see how anybody who becomes violently aggressive simply because they have had a drink can be classed as "perfectly respectable people".

 :-* :-* :-*

I thought it was no complaint day.

All things taken into consideration - did we all have fun?

I did.

And I am guilty of partaking in some mad driving in the Porshe - but when you mostly live in Jersey and can only go max 40 MPH??? I don't balme Jan for going a bit mad. Plus he had a new girlfriend to impress. Even Mr RS2 looked a bit nervous!!!

And we did get soaked and had to listen to lots of abuse.

Never Mind

Lisa
xxx

Reading all this can (rightly) be quite depressing, however I would like to add that although I was a bit concerned about it, "The Wild Choppers" did not get hosed down by anyone at all (although we missed out the HA roundabout on our Friday display). Proof that everyone has a limit as to what constitutes fair game to them? We just need to help them raise it...

Taking it upon yourself to enforce your (quite reasonable) standards on a bunch of drunken, sh*t for brains, scum-suckers is likely to end up in tears. Leafleting the arseholes is presuming they can even read.

What would the consequenses of failure to abide by the rules be?

Like you, Andy, I have some bad memories of late 80's Jaguar fever, which descended into another exhibition of English moronic pack behavior - where so called race fans threw rocks and bottles at Mercedes and Porsche road cars entering the Houx and Garage Verte car parks. The CRS quite quickly put a stop to it - and I don't really think there is any better response to 'the baying mob' than a good dose of whup-ass and the CRS have quite a rep for dishing it out.

Le Mans has become a party destination - no painless way of stopping this sh*t - particularly with pond-life that has no respect for law enforcement - or fear of the consequences of abusing law enforcement officers.  I really worry that we'll see water cannon and tear gas at Le Mans if this sh*t is allowed to get out of hand. Let the CRS crack a few skulls now and maybe it'll be nipped in the bud.

   

Hopefully next year, being world cup year the moronic element will stay away from Le Mans and will either be in Germany or at home watching football on TV.
I for one would not relish a kicking as a result of intervening and asking these pricks to calm it and respect others property. So I'm afraid I stand back and say nothing (a sad reflection of our society) as many others do.
 It saddens me to read that one of these arseholes was wearing a CA t-shirt as this will reflect on all of us. In general I have only heard good things about CA members. People have commented on how advise has been offered and help given with problems without being asked for. I hope this was an isolated incident and this idiot has not blackened the name of CA.
Saying that it will never put me off returning to the worlds' premier motor racing event every year.

Matt, your right about the eighties, do you remember the big punch up in the beer keller in 88, with tables and chairs flying around like a hurricane had struck the place? Very frightening and being a coward by nature I exitted stage left with a German bloke and cleared off to another bar and had a pint with him.

I would add that general anti-social behaviour is not limited to the Brits. At 03.00am on sunday morning we spent ten minutes queuing to buy some chips. On reaching the head of the queue I was somewhat perturbed to be barged out of the way by a French guy who clearly thought he wouldn't waste his valuable time waiting to be served. A polite query on my part as to his intentions was greeted by a mouthful of abuse and a raised fist. My vernacular French isn't particularly good, but I certainly understood the gist of his sentiment. I therefore invited him to have a chat with the floor, travelling to his destination backwards over a bin. In hindsight things could have turned a bit nasty as he was with half a dozen pals.

I think a couple of these may help keep things under control.

Will 'Pet World' be stocking them?

I bet the guy with the monkey is thinking "sh*t, I wondered why it was so cheap"  :D

Although not an expert on these matters at all, it is my understanding that, in previous years, the 'party' element had got a bit out of hand at Sebring.

Hence, when I was there in March, I noticed that there was a strong, but silent, police prescence in parts of the camping and trackway areas.  

Apparently, the craze at one time was to wedge vast quantities of pissed youths in the back of pickup trucks (usually standing) and then hoon around the trackways.

All very well until some unfortunate fell out and was run over and killed.  So now the police seem to enforce a responsible attitude to drinking and driving within the site.

There were LOTS of undercover cops at Sebring this year.  They themselves will ride around in the backs of pickups holding empty beer bottles to fit in with the crowds.  They made a ton of weed possesion arrests this year, also.  From what I was told, the new county sherriff wanted a major crackdown this year to make a name for herself as being hard on crime and they arrested loads of people.