Advice from the ACO

[Steve TTTD]

Mine's gone a nice shade of black...
I made the mistake of doing what I do every year and putting it in the window as soon as it arrived...
That'll teach me not to follow tradition in future

[wishy]

No worries for us ........just printed off our GA e-tickets from the ACO website and JDS is kindly looking after our MB ticket until we arrive on Wednesday.

So hopefully when we arrive, the non english speaking ticket man will reprint our MB pass 

[termietermite]

Note that the problem persists for the Classic.  Popped in today and apparently the stock was ordered for both races so don't leave 'em in the sun (of which there is a fair bit - on and off - at the mo'.)

[Nordic]

I kept mine covered during the race etc, but when I come home as a test put it in the sun to see what happened.

So far it has not faded, mind you we have not had much sun either!

[termietermite]

I had my GE ticket round my neck one evening during 1st quali and it certainly did go black but not enough to make it illegible before I realised what was happening and hid it!

[Lawnmower Man]

None of my Tickets turned Black at the @4 Hours or at the Classic.

However on the ferry home I did see an Audi with a ticket that had gone very black at the 24 Hours.

t.

[pretzel]

However on the ferry home I did see an Audi with a ticket that had gone very black at the 24 Hours.

t.

Must be due to all that soot from the diesel engine :-)

[Brian(Liverpool boys)]

Put mine in the micro wave and it just went on fire, bloody French paper.

[Fran]

Put mine in the micro wave and it just went on fire, bloody French paper.

Agreed - the ACO have no understanding of what the British race fans want and need.

[Grand_Fromage]

In defence of the ACO, they are not just one monolithic entity but just people like us. Some of them understand the needs of British race fans, and others have no clue. The organization is split into the 'sporting' (the blazers) and the 'commercial' (the suits). The commercial and administrative part includes the ticketing department. They outsource the printing of tickets. All the tickets for LM are printed months ahead of time. The same supplier printed tickets for the Moto GP at Le Mans (held shortly before the 24 hours) and it was at the GP that the ACO realised the problem. With no time or means of recalling and reprinting tickets they had no option but to go with what they had, and issue a warning to ticket holders not to leave them in the sun.

Problems with Le Mans ticketing and campsites stem partly from the structure of the ACO organization, and partly from Anglo/French cultural differences. The public faces and voices of the ACO for race fans are the people on the ACO ticket phone lines and on the desk in the 'Rotonde'. Those folks do their best, but they are a long way from the decision makers of the ACO and we should remember that when voicing our complaints.

I've worked with the ACO for many years and all the people I have encountered have been well intentioned and really DO have the best interests of racers and race fans at heart. Over 200,000 people come through the turnstiles at Le Mans each year from all over Europe. The British contingent is large, but not in the majority. The organizers have to balance the needs of racegoers of all nationalities, with the the facilities and funds available. One thing is clear, they are never going to please everyone, and the potential for mistakes and misunderstandings is very high.

One more thing to bear in mind is that the permanent staff of the ACO is not as large as you might think. They have a large number of temporary workers drafted-in for June. No matter how well briefed, these folks also have potential for miscommunication and mess-up (they are mostly French after all).

Yes, I do curse the ACO organization regularly when the wheels of French bureaucracy grind very slowly, and the times when there is poor communication between departments. However, in general they do manage to get the job done (eventually) and they should be respected for having have kept the 24 hours of Le Mans alive (with short hiatus for war and national strike) for 89 years.

 
 



 

[Lawnmower Man]

I have to agree with Dave,

However having to "pop" in to the Ticket office to collect my Grandstand ticket.  I had time to observe things.  There were desks with various functions.  Marshals, Press, Entrants and so on.  They had no queues the ticket desk were however overwhelmed with people. 

Obviously some people where there to purchase tickets and as such were clueless as to what they wanted and what they needed nor did they know where anything plus the language problem.  So things moved rather slowly.   IMHO they should have a desk for those collecting tickets.  My guess would be it need just one person you give them the invoice and they give you the tickets. 

I think that they did have something like that as one of the desks had an A4 size no tine that looked just like all of the others apart from the fact is had the word "WEB" the queue there was twice the length of the other queues and it seemed to move at half the speed too.   I noticed a guy in a distinctive shirt in the "WEB" queue near the back of the queue I went to the loo and came back and joined a regular queue.  By the time I had my tickets he was still only half way down the queue.

For sure everyone that was public facing did their best to help and to do a good job. 

I guess it's difficult to predict when people will be arriving to collect and purchase tickets.  So there will be queues.  in the past I've thought about not having the Tickets posted to me and save the €18 but now I'm starting to think it's money well spent.

As for the tickets turning black if exposed to sunlight or heat it's not really my problem that is a problem for the ACO.  I noticed on some camping tickets they had a "don't expose to sunlight or heat" message printed on them.  So I guess they didn't really fix the problem.

May be we'll they'll have the same issues next year.

t

[Grand_Fromage]

They sacked the ticket supplier, and the blackening issue was a HUGE embarrassment to the ACO so probably not.

May be we'll they'll have the same issues next year.

t

[Stu]

They sacked the ticket supplier, and the blackening issue was a HUGE embarrassment to the ACO so probably not.

May be we'll they'll have the same issues next year.

t

I would prefer those credit card style tickets that some people had instead of those huge things that drive me mad flapping about in the wind when you have your beer in one hand and your camera in the other.

[termietermite]

I posted about the problem persisting after having a very pleasant conversation with the woman in the Museum ticket office.  Clearly, it was a far greater problem for her (a permanent fixture whom I know passingly well) and the staff than it ever was for us and probably cost the ACO a bit in terms of the staff needed to re-issue the offending tickets.  Especially so as they did not know exactly how many were going to be affected in this way as not everybody was aware or took any notice of what was printed on the tickets.

However, the fact that my friend in his DB came back to the club car park to find a large, printed, yellow notice on his car, remonstrating with him for not having his parking ticket in his windscreen was just laughable.

I love living here, I find the French much as I find the British - some I adore, some I'd rather never see again, thanks very much.  All in all, I'm glad the ACO puts the race on and keeps it going but I do wish I could work out how to get some of our feedback through to them.