I’ve been stewing over something that happened this year at Le Mans and thought now was the time get it out onto the forum on Club Arnage and listen to other peoples views on this.

I’ve signed in as a guest for fear of any mindless repercussions against myself or anyone in our group next year at Le Mans, and will therefore keep any details as vague as possible. Could anyone who does recognise us please respect this anonymity. I’ll ask moderators to remove this thread should any names appear.

Our group has been attending Le Mans for 8 years, and most members visit this site very regularly (at least daily) with several contributing on a fairly regular basis…

At the end of the race our team ventured onto the track to watch the prize-giving and open a celebratory bottle of bubbly as we have done for years. A member of our group was carrying a large flag pole which had a Union Jack at the top, and below it was a German flag with the Porsche crest across it.

From this most of you would guess we are British Le Mans fans and were there this year specifically supporting British-run Porsche Team PK Sport in absence of any factory presence from Porsche Gmbh (again!) – BAM Porsche got a good few cheers from us as well. In fact, most of us live in UK and a couple drive Porsches, and those that don’t live in UK are ex-British Army servicemen (who incidentally saw action in the first Gulf War) now living and working in Germany.

As you know Johnny Herbert was also driving an Audi with J.Davies and G.Smith (British blokes in a German machine) as well as many other British/German/other combinations on the entry list – McNish in an Audi, plus another British driver alongside two Russians in a German Freisinger Porsche, etc, etc.

"So, a pretty open attitude towards mixed teams from various countries at Le Mans 2004 then." Or so we thought…

One of our group had a friend in the tribunes above the pits near the start-line and as we stood on the grid looking for him we couldn’t help noticing abusive gesturing coming our way from a bloke in a yellow shirt every time we looked in that direction. If you’re reading this you’ll know who you are.

Every time one of our group looked up towards the crowd this individual took it upon himself to hurl aggressive ‘football hooligan style’ abuse our way. Eventually, this mindless abuse turned into racist Hitler salutes which to say the least p**sed off the British guys who live in Germany.

The  clincher was when he took photos with his digi-camera and gestured to us that "I’ve got photos of you!". Not sure what he planned to do with them – I expect they’ve got pride of place on a racist / xenophobic website by now. "Fame at last! L"

Just to say this unfortunate incident was the first time I’ve ever seen behaviour like this at Le Mans after many years of camping alongside people from all countries, sharing beers and even watching footy matches with rival supporters from other countries.

It actually totally amazed us and put a real downer at the end of what was probably our best Le Mans yet.

I can only guess he is new to Le Mans and therefore doesn’t understand the friendliness and open-attitude which makes Le Mans such an amazing International event every year.

Please, for the future enjoyment of everyone who goes to Le Mans, leave your racist attitude at home. The Le Mans 24 hours doesn’t need people like you.