Club Arnage

Don't know if this March article has already been covered, but for those with Creds (Keith, Rick, Jason, Sander etc) there is an article on the ACO site stating that all Journalists and Photographers who enters the pits area have to wear coveralls this year.


http://www.lemans.org/24heuresdumans/live/actu/2007-03-15_GD_1274_gb.html

Yep the ACO have issued a press release about it. 

It's great fun trying to track down white, unbranded overalls with no logos on at all!! 

For anyone interested AWS will do them if you ask nicely! 

When I was at sea, all merchant navy marine engineers wore white, non-branded boiler suits, and probably still do.

Safety wear specialists such as ARCO etc should be able to supply.

The requirement for fireproof overalls has been common practice in North Amrerica for many years now. It makes sense in the pit lane. Practice here though does not specify the colour and non advertising requirement so many simple borrow old driver suits which obviously does not work for the ACO.
I would offer my plain suit except it is BLACK.
Phil

I think the pit lane fire in Monza was the latest proof that this is a meaningful new regulation.

Absolutely, as a pit marshal I support the intention entirely, I also hope it will have the effect of keeping some of the less official "media" peeps out of the pit lane as well (the ones using their phones as cameras  ::)).  I'd like to see it enforced in more European series.   KK has race overalls which he's used in the pitlane where necessary but sadly they do not meet the ACO's criteria...

I also potentially understand the issue of branding and conflicting sponsorship but finding unbranded Probans is pretty tricky - AWS will do them but at an extra cost.    I am also surprised that they don't want to ensure that photographers look different to marshals - I know LM Marshals overalls are very specific but from a distance they are going to look pretty similar, personally in my pit lane I want to be able to easily tell who is who. 

Quite simple, get all photographers in bright orange coveralls! ;D

That wont help much, half the people at LM are dressed in bright orange, and those that arent wearing it are covered in orange smoke dust!!

F

That's all in preparation for the ceremony at the end of the race! ;)

That must be the ceremonial taking down of the DfH scaffolding or maybe the drinking of the last litre of beer?   :P

F

If the Dutch teams end up like last year, our scaffolding will be down by 9 AM :-[

Thanks for the heads up the ACO had emailed the regular snappers some months back, new "white" overalls are on order, the main issue was "no branding" AWS have done me a deal and any other snappers who call them will get the same service but be quick order now for delivery in first week of JUNE!

See you all in June, I'm out to LM on Thursday so will take a look at the new Paddock

can you check out what the welcome thing is on the ticket pouches.. for ACO members or corporate w*****s?

Cheers matey

Given that we don't have any tickets yet you might need to be a little more specific about what you want checked out  ;D

From the way I see it it looks like the front glazed area would look out on to the track approximately where the old ACO viewing tower used to be, not far from the end of the pit exit. Could be wrong of course.....

Here you are Piglet

(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a266/delboy9/Ticket-Pouch.jpg)

Del

Ohhh that's pretty  ;D

I think Termie's dealt with this on another thread and it is the new Welcome centre?    Will send KK to see if it's been built yet!

From the image on the ACO website page 4 "new stands" image # 4333 taken on the 12th April 2007 to me looks as if construction hasn't started!

Yesterday there was certainly nothing resembling a building there!  Imagine it will be '08 before we get a difinitive answer.  But you never know...

Will be at Le Mans tomorrow mid day ish staying at Spay on the campsite, I take some staps of stuff, will be back late Monday.... and yes the ACO may be changing thier minds on the coveralls to three layer Nomex race suits in white for the snappers 

They'll be nice and cool then if the weather's hot......

Photographers in overalls!!
Is this not another case of Health & Safety gone mad? Besides where are they going to put all their little knick knacks, lenses, camel hair brushes and rolls of digital film? I thought the French, to their credit, had a little more common sense when it came to the Hi-vi and clipboard brigade. Has there ever been any instances of photographers catching alight? (I remember Ginger Snaps been pretty red hot, but didn't actually see her on fire).  I think I recall one poor snapper being hit with a runaway tyre, and I don't think a set of overalls would have helped him much.
C'mon lads, thongs and a vest, it'll be much more entertaining...
H

I was only thinking this morning that the HASAWA brigade were running amock in this country. I always drive past the local Driving Test Centre on my way to the office. Some time ago all the examiners started wearing orange HiVi vests. I saw one candidate this morning pulling out of the carpark and kangarooing down the road. I accept it must be a pretty fraught experience for the examiner, but like the photographers at Le Mans, I can't for the life of me think how donning a HiVi jerkin could help improve safety.

In my day no self-respecting Ministry man would be seen without a Harry Worth-style camel coat, gloves, trilby hat and a packet of stale ham sandwiches in his breast pocket. He may even have had the face of Margaret Thatcher tattooed on his penis so he could show how she winks to the seventeen year olds but that's by-the-by. Anyway, the point is examiners were far easier to spot than yet another Dayglo-clad idiot standing in the road next to his own sense of self-importance..

The Corvette's very spectacular pit lane fire at Monza last weekend appears to have focused the ACO's attention further to protecting those that are legitimately in the pit lane and trying harder to keep out those that shouldn't be there.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1677624

If anybody is in need, check this out
http://www.specialistworkwear.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_2&products_id=1

The trouble is Termie they don't do white only bright colours and the ACO have stipulated White (or light grey - I think) with no logos and branding.

The majority of the stockists that show white on their websites don't actually hold them in stock and have a 6 week plus lead time to produce them especially with the "no logo" requirement.

It's being suggested that the "no logos and branding" may have been a mis-translation or a mis-wording and that what the ACO were trying to avoid was snappers wearing team overalls. 

I'll have a decco at the French version.

It says : White/beige/plain grey, and must be completely free of all advertising, logos or branding.

When apparently what they meant achieve was along the lines of "must not have team sponsorship and/or make the snapper look like team personnel" ;D

KK has gone for ordinary white unbranded Probans for this year, I'm pretty sure they will beef the requirement to Nomex in future years but that causes other problems - are they going to say gloves, goggles & balaclavas for snappers - that's the only way to ensure total coverage but a) makes taking pics pretty tricky and b) takes away their ability to see and hear properly which arguably puts them at much greater risk that the possibility of a fire.

Sensibly they'll lobby the FIA to implement new regulations and then go with those, it lessens the ACO's exposure to liability for the effect of any regs they themselves bring in.