"Paddock Proletariat" 1, Smartass Dutchess 0

In 2001, I attended Le Mans with a group of boys and girls from Ten-Tenths Motorsport. We girls travelled in one car and the boys travelled in another, but we all camped together. We girls were members of the ACO and had looked over the tickets on offer carefully and had splashed out for the All Access ($500 US) variety; the boys had gone for General Admission.

We arrived on Thursday night and everyone had a nice day in the pitlane on Friday. However, Saturday morning when the crew showed up at the paddock gate, only the girls were admitted. As we were passing through the front entrance, attired in dusty jeans, t-shirts with Rothman Porsches on them, beat-up backpacks and BTCC ball caps, our attention was caught by an exceedingly well-dressed couple of Brits who were creating a disturbance nearby. Well, it was the woman who was creating the disturbance; her male companion looked as if he'd have helped out if only he could have got a word in anywhere. She caught sight of us looking at her and screamed, "Why are you letting in people like THAT, and not people like US?"

We looked at each other and burst out laughing, and walked in with a certain swagger but without making the obvious comment: "Because WE have tickets and YOU don't."

Later that day as I was walking past the Panoz garage, I noticed Jan Magnussen talking to some of his crew; as I caught his eye, he made a sudden downward motion with his hand followed by a stamp of one foot. It took me a few seconds to realize that he'd dropped his cigarette and stepped on it -- a gesture I had last seen in the schoolyard in Grade 8.