Le Mans 2023 - How was it for you?

[Kev_mk3]

How did you find the new campsite if you where on it? How did you find the race and experience of it all?


Friday night aka mad Friday was the most sedate, quiet night I’ve EVER had at Le Mans. No happy hardcore, no raves till 5am nothing, just dam busters on a projector then Maverick. I got a great night’s sleep.

I found everywhere around the track you couldn't move, it was dangerous at some points. Fast forward to near 2am it was still rammed and couldn’t move so didn’t get to the start finish line. By now it was 50% behind the safety car due to a stupid new rule and 50% racing. I’d not seen a car in person yet! The lines for toilets / shops where horrific as they had removed half the toilets from previous years for some reason on campsites & the amount of ambulances going round for people injured or drunk was frightening especially seeing one bloke on the floor. The whole thing was very claustrophobic.

I had been hunting for a tshirt all weekend and waited for ages in a line to get into a shop only to find completely sold out as the ACO never bloody stock enough - balls. I should know better!

Racing on Sunday got much better and enjoyable.

I have to be honest if there was ever a year I stayed at home this is that year due to the fact you couldn't get anywhere at track.

Security one day checked next time didn't care when you walked past with a bottled beer standard each year really.

Also annoying you couldn't get to Arnage Sunday as police wouldn't let people there.

Fingers crossed 2024 is back to normal..........

[Aysedasi]

We had a whale of a time.  For me, this was my 36th Le Mans and if it wasn't the best, it comes pretty close.  Terrific race (I'm not about to get hung up on SCs and SZ's) as I'd hope it would be.  As to the crowds. I spent a fair bit of time in the grandstand to escape the heat of the sun but when we did venture out we didn't have too much difficulty getting through the crowds.  We had made a positive decision not to go to Arnage or Mulsanne during the race, but we visited the former on Wednesday evening and the latter on Thursday evening.  Once through Arnage village it was as easy as pie.  All you had to do was follow the 'Violet' signage.  I can't say I actually knew that in advance, but I had a violet coloured Arnage/Mulsanne parking sticker in my windscreen, so the association was obvious.  It was actually amusing how little traffic we encountered on those two journeys, presumably because people were trying to use the routes they'd always used and ran into trouble.  

There were insane queues for the shops.  I bought my t-shirt earlier in the week and visited the museum on Tuesday when there were no real queues at all.  I didn't have any claustrophobic experiences at all.  I watched the dawn come up from the outside of Tertre Rouge with about 10 other people, while the inside of the corner was still rammed.  There seem to have been experiences of Le Mans this year that were poles apart.  This was a year, I think, when you had to try to do things differently rather than assuming that with a larger crowd you'd be able to do everything in the same way as you've always done it.  We massively enjoyed ourselves, got to places we hadn't been to before using the new Porsche bridge and only got rained on once at about 10 pm on race night.  We left the circuit straight after the finish and were back to our Le Mans 'home from home' inside 24 minutes, encountering hardly any traffic.  

All in all, a fabulous week, great weather, great company and a great race.  

[clkgtrlm1]

My 24th LM and I have to say it was one of the best, if not THE BEST one so far.
(Definitely in the Top3)

First time camping for 10 days,on BSJ.
Nice site, lots of good neighbours, not too rowdy.
Shuttles were running well and efficient.

No problems getting in and around, just use your knowledge and go where / when the crowds are not.
Easy access to grandstands (T15).
Usual fun and frivolity at Tertre Rouge Bar.

What a great race!
(SC procedure excepted) (*)
Have to admit to being a tad emotional at the end, having imagined that I would never get to see a Ferrari outright victory at LM in my lifetime!

(*) I have been invited by a friend (Kelvin Burt) to write an open letter regarding the SC procedure and how it affected the experience of the race. He is going to forward this to Eduardo DeFreitas by email.
Maybe this needs a thread of it's own?

[clkgtrlm1]

My 24th LM and I have to say it was one of the best, if not THE BEST one so far.
(Definitely in the Top3)

First time camping for 10 days,on BSJ.
Nice site, lots of good neighbours, not too rowdy.
Shuttles were running well and efficient.

No problems getting in and around, just use your knowledge and go where / when the crowds are not.
Easy access to grandstands (T15).
Usual fun and frivolity at Tertre Rouge Bar.

What a great race!


"The locksmiths" at work. Tertre Rouge.



(SC procedure excepted) (*)
Have to admit to being a tad emotional at the end, having imagined that I would never get to see a Ferrari outright victory at LM in my lifetime!

(*) I have been invited by a friend (Kelvin Burt) to write an open letter regarding the SC procedure and how it affected the experience of the race. He is going to forward this to Eduardo DeFreitas by email.
Maybe this needs a thread of it's own?

"The Locksmiths" in Action at Tertre Rouge!

[Kev_mk3]

I have been pondering on this a fair bit to be fair. These are just my views

Highlights -
- Seeing my mates and spending time with them
- Trying a new route and will do it again
- Absolutely loving the Cupra for the trip. 39.1mpg and 400 miles to a tank with all our gear, air con on max and sitting at cruising speeds.
- Buying the wet weather gear for it to miss us as I'd hoped!
- Great food & relaxing
- The racing (from listening) from early hours of the morning onwards as felt up till 2am the safety car messed it up.
- Getting to see in the pits a different perspective. (Thanks Sam!)
- Sam’s team getting a podium in GT Am. I never say but I am super proud of what she has accomplished over her career and especially with some battles she’s had. Absolutely over the moon for her.
- Banter between the lads and the geeky conversations we have. I absolutely love it.


Negatives
- The claustrophobic atmosphere at track, not being able to get anywhere. Felt dangerous
- Lack of racing I got to see
- Lack of facilities as they removed them especially as they knew more people were coming than ever.
- Not being able to get to places I love to go
- Feeling I’ve let friends down as we can’t get places / see things.

The final thoughts are the conditions took away from me the nature of why I go and I’ve focused on them more than other positive parts. I started going with my dad as a kid and continue to go in his honour. I guess over all the issue is not being able to stick to our “routine” upset me & I think this was my issue as this has always been a connection to my dad. This may seem stupid to others but I never really realised this till I got home! He went for 33 years and I know I’ll struggle to beat it being I’ve 19 now but I’ll try. I love the journey, the company and the feel the place gives me so thank everyone who came for that. I’ll be back next year, few alterations to kit but I won’t let things get to me to spoil it!

[clkgtrlm1]

I have been pondering on this a fair bit to be fair. These are just my views

Highlights -
- Seeing my mates and spending time with them
- Trying a new route and will do it again
- Absolutely loving the Cupra for the trip. 39.1mpg and 400 miles to a tank with all our gear, air con on max and sitting at cruising speeds.
- Buying the wet weather gear for it to miss us as I'd hoped!
- Great food & relaxing
- The racing (from listening) from early hours of the morning onwards as felt up till 2am the safety car messed it up.
- Getting to see in the pits a different perspective. (Thanks Sam!)
- Sam’s team getting a podium in GT Am. I never say but I am super proud of what she has accomplished over her career and especially with some battles she’s had. Absolutely over the moon for her.
- Banter between the lads and the geeky conversations we have. I absolutely love it.


Negatives
- The claustrophobic atmosphere at track, not being able to get anywhere. Felt dangerous
- Lack of racing I got to see
- Lack of facilities as they removed them especially as they knew more people were coming than ever.
- Not being able to get to places I love to go
- Feeling I’ve let friends down as we can’t get places / see things.

The final thoughts are the conditions took away from me the nature of why I go and I’ve focused on them more than other positive parts. I started going with my dad as a kid and continue to go in his honour. I guess over all the issue is not being able to stick to our “routine” upset me & I think this was my issue as this has always been a connection to my dad. This may seem stupid to others but I never really realised this till I got home! He went for 33 years and I know I’ll struggle to beat it being I’ve 19 now but I’ll try. I love the journey, the company and the feel the place gives me so thank everyone who came for that. I’ll be back next year, few alterations to kit but I won’t let things get to me to spoil it!

The atmosphere and crowd reminded me of the late 1990's when the GT's and GT1's were dominant.
(Believe it or not - the crowds then seemed even more full on!)
I love to see all the people around the track - I think it brings something extra to the event.
(just my opinion)
{Edit} For the reasons above Kev, I think your Dad would have recognised and loved the feeling of the crowd this year!  Dean

[Kev_mk3]

Probably agree Dean TBH. It's all in my head but wont stop me again 

[Lorry]

Is everybody being polite, and not mentioning the beer ban.  Not very French.  I know it creates a lot of rubbish, but there's nowhere to put it - all over the site.

I remember when Disneyland Paris went bust.  The French wouldn't go there as it was a dry site and you couldn't have wine with lunch etc.  Now you can and its a success.

Perhaps the bikers are to blame

And why do they publish a list of prohibited items, and not mention alcohol.

[enzo]

Is everybody being polite, and not mentioning the beer ban.  Not very French.  I know it creates a lot of rubbish, but there's nowhere to put it - all over the site.

I remember when Disneyland Paris went bust.  The French wouldn't go there as it was a dry site and you couldn't have wine with lunch etc.  Now you can and its a success.

Perhaps the bikers are to blame

And why do they publish a list of prohibited items, and not mention alcohol.

What beer ban ?

[Kev_mk3]

I thought you where being sarcastic as I didnt see a beer ban and as stated people walked in with bottled beers inc myself so spotted no issue

[Aysedasi]

Not fussed about a beer ban as alcohol hasn't been a part of my life for many years and I feel physically and psychologically the better off for it.  But I appreciate that it is 'essential' in order for many people to enjoy Le Mans.  I confess I was surprised at seeing cans of beer being confiscated at the entrances.  Having said that, there was actually plenty of alcohol to be had and it appeared to be pretty easy to get alcohol in when decanted into innocuous looking pop bottles. 

[geoffd]

For me there just seemed too many people inside the main circuit and other members of our group felt the same, my wife has limited walking ability and even with a stick many people were just plain rude and inconsiderate tbh, with the volumes inside the circuit that made life difficult for us, but heyho I get it was the centenary and numbers will drop off over the next few years.
Missed our Blanc parking but we had both Expo and Panorama, tried both, Expo was probably the easier walk.  We had Mulsanne camping as usual, just for a R&R location only real camping is on race night. Interestingly numbers at Mulsanne seemed no different to normal to me, maybe a few up but not so bad. Getting from Expo to Mulsanne was a doddle going via Ruaudin three hours in to the race.  We made the decision to watch the end from Mulsanne rather than returning to our grandstand, and tbh I quite enjoyed it.
We bought most of our merchandise on arrival on the 1st June so got most of what we wanted, trying to buy at the circuit was chaos, managed to pick up the last two of the poster tshirts in large on Friday 16th at the museum just before coming home!
Got checked by security at Mulsanne camping for glass on our first visit, they didn't find the bottles as it was only a cursory look, we did find it amusing that bottles were banned but there was a glass recycling bin on the campsite
Being able to get our ACO wristbands at the Pesage was a plus point.
Race was great Safety Cars not so, but that's just a personal opinion.

A really big plus for me was the variety of engine noises, must have really confused the F1 fans in the crowd

[Chrisgr31]

It was all very busy.  We were camping in Epinettes, prefer Expo.  Not sure if Epinettes is better than Beausejour.  Found ourselves opposite @lawnmowerman and @canadaphil.  Always found the toilet and showers adequate, rarely did I queue for them.

Security on entrance to the circuit at Garage Vert were always friendly.  Never tried to take glass or beer in but the questions was always any alcohol.  Not sure if beer in cans counts as alcohol as never tried it.

It was busy at the circuit but set up on the inside of the circuit looking up the forests S's for the start, were there early as it was so busy.  Stayed there for a coupe of hours after the start, then campsite for BBQ, back to concrete steps on Dunlop chicane for the evening, and where there on Sunday morning but too hot so watched end on the screen in the campsite.

Left Epinettes at 5 on Sunday, by 6 was at Tetre Rouge.  Went cross country up to Le Rouen via Dreux, then motorway to the tunnel.  Got to the tunnel at 10.45 missing the 10.50 crossing.

No real issues, just busy as expected.

[Lorry]

Firstly, you either have electricity or you end up with something very dangerous.  Nowadays we expect electricity on campsites

As for alcohol, it's smuggled in, and I assume that they have trouble with the bikers, but as it isn't a banned substance on their list, why are they being dishonest

The new seats are dam uncomfortable as they have no backrest.  Watching it on television is far better, and will be more popular once the "100 anniversary" is over.  I could go on, but its disappointing enough.

[JDS]

Pretty much three months on now and I still find myself conflicted on this question.

It was great for a few reasons, not least because it's the first time since covid that all my regular camping buddies have been back and we had a great time over the entire week. It was the 100th anniversary, so it's an 'I was there' box ticked. The fireworks and drone shows were great, it does show that when the vice like grip can be leveraged off the ACO's wallet slightly they do have the capacity to do the odd good thing. The overall atmosphere was generally jovial and despite all the rules we had no issues getting our leccy scoots in/out of the circuit the entire week.

Things that still irk me today:

We got bumped at booking to BSJ as we couldn't get the number of pitches we wanted on Epi on the ACO's site and were limited to two maximum. It wasn't as awful as we expected it to be, but that's not the point, we still felt like we were treated as insignificant, second class citizens. The crowds inside the circuit were immense - as Kev has stated earlier, at 2am on race day there were more people still inside than I've seen most years at the start and finish of the race. The gate staff acted like utter tw@ts the majority of the time - even with an organisational 'go anywhere' pass on one of our vehicles we got such a hard time trying to get in/out of Entree Sud at times.

When I got home the Monday after the race and unloaded the van one thing went through my head - 'I'm glad I made the effort and went, but I still preferred the 2020, no spectators, race; having the entire place almost to one's self, camping inside the Bugatti circuit and just wandering about enjoying the race without distraction was one of, if not the best, races for me'.

Roll on 2024, hopefully what we now see as 'normaity' will be restored.