Latest news and pictures of works

[Robspot]

I will report back what its like in may.. with piccies.. as I will be there for the oh so naughty motoGP boys

cheering on our brit jamie 'the masher' toseland

It's people like you what cause unrest.

Bloody motorbike track changes grrr....

[fagey]

I will report back what its like in may.. with piccies.. as I will be there for the oh so naughty motoGP boys

cheering on our brit jamie 'the masher' toseland

It's people like you what cause unrest.

Bloody motorbike track changes grrr....

moi??

[Robspot]

Emailed the ACO yesterday and got sent this document today. All in French but may be of some use.

[Christopher]

The top half of that document talks about shifting one of the corners up near HA, just to creata a larger run off area.

It is the corner just before LE MANS written in the grass.

It will means that a large section of the road that runs along the back of HA (opposite side of HA to the mad Friday roundabout) will be re-routed. Hence the reduction in space on HA.

Am I correct?

[Christopher]

This might help.

[termietermite]

The tram stop is pretty much on the HA roundabout. The whole of the area between the tram stop and Garage Vert was a hive of activity a few weeks ago when I posted about this.  The new tunnel and entrace will allow passengers to hop off the tram and get straight into the circuit - including the disabled.  There will be room for a temporary stand for 2,000 people.  Most of the other work at GV is concerned with safety standards dictated by the bikers (much like the pit exit debacle a couple of years ago.)

I've looked and looked at the wording about MB and to my mind, it still says 4 permanent pits not grandstands.  This makes more sense, given that it's going to be a mini circuit for driver training etc etc.

And yes, like it or not, the crowd is still 80% French but bear in mind that this includes things like PQ weekend where the bias is even more noticable.  Many though just come for a few hours and b*gger off home again - certainly the campsite crowd is, I suspect, much more biased the other way.  I reckon (although this is a personal opinion) that this is why there is a bias in favour of non campers - because that is where most of the feedback comes from.  It's interesting looking at the faq's for instance that although the French audience has exactly the same moans as us - camping doesn't feature very highly, as these things go.  Whereas to many of those coming from other countries, it is the core of the week.

[smokie]

... passengers to hop off the tram and get straight into the circuit - including the disabled.  

Heather?   

[Christopher]

The tram stop is pretty much on the HA roundabout. The whole of the area between the tram stop and Garage Vert was a hive of activity a few weeks ago when I posted about this.  The new tunnel and entrace will allow passengers to hop off the tram and get straight into the circuit - including the disabled.  There will be room for a temporary stand for 2,000 people.  Most of the other work at GV is concerned with safety standards dictated by the bikers (much like the pit exit debacle a couple of years ago.)

I've looked and looked at the wording about MB and to my mind, it still says 4 permanent pits not grandstands.  This makes more sense, given that it's going to be a mini circuit for driver training etc etc.

And yes, like it or not, the crowd is still 80% French but bear in mind that this includes things like PQ weekend where the bias is even more noticable.  Many though just come for a few hours and b*gger off home again - certainly the campsite crowd is, I suspect, much more biased the other way.  I reckon (although this is a personal opinion) that this is why there is a bias in favour of non campers - because that is where most of the feedback comes from.  It's interesting looking at the faq's for instance that although the French audience has exactly the same moans as us - camping doesn't feature very highly, as these things go.  Whereas to many of those coming from other countries, it is the core of the week.

Termie is correct. The document robspot posted does not mention anything about grandstands at MB. There will be an extension to the track and gravel traps to give the ACO more flexibility with layout, and there will be 4 pit garages.

Termie, do you think it would be of benefit for us to start giving feedback to the ACO about the camping specifically? You suggest that becasue no one is commenting about camping to the ACO that they do not know what our problems are. There is of course no certainty they will listen.....

[termietermite]

I do think there's a good case for a lot more formal feeback from the non-French fans to the ACO, most specifically about the camping. I hear that the ACO is "aware" of CA and DFH etc - but I'm not convinced that they understand the depth of feeling about the camping and the way it's organised.  Nor do they appreciate how critical it is when you're spending upwards of a week here - compared to the one or two nights in the case of most of the native French. If you look at the introduction to the link to the q&a feedback, it says specifically that it's only in French, simply because the bulk of fans are French.  So an assumption is being made that they represent the majority opinion.  My point is that that is probably so vis a vis the general spectating, but I suspect not the camping.

I think we should be making this point more forcefully - but to them, not one another.  I wonder if there's any future in our doing a "petition" highlighting our concerns and getting signatures from all our members, and trying to get support from other European websites who moan about the same things.

[Robspot]

I wouldn't go the petition route without actually trying to open some dialogue with the ACO first. At the moment all we do is hand our applications in and then wait to see what we get. I would suggest a first step would be to contact them, explain that we have hundreds of members who want to buy hundreds of camping passes and that, surprisingly enough, some of them would actually like to camp near each other. Can they give us some advice or help to make this happen.

This will be even more important with the near total introduction of numbered pitches. Even if next year everyone who wanted to be on MB got tickets we could be spread all over the place.

I still go back to the block booking idea. Not setting up an agency but surely it can't do any harm to ask the question "We want to buy 500 camping passes for Club Arnage members, can we do it in one booking and get the allocation we want?"

[Dobbo]

I think it is an excellent idea to raise any issues with the ACO. At the moment they aren't aware of any problems. I have tried to raise issues with them in the past but my questions fell on deaf ears because I am just one voice. It is understandable I guess. I am sure that with an influx of enquiries the ACO would at least begin to take note.

[Kev_mk3]

Is anyone near the track at all? As if there willing they could pop and take a few sneaky pics. Im over at my parents in april but its 3 months off 


***EDITED DUE TO PETRAS LESSON***

[Piglet]

I still go back to the block booking idea. Not setting up an agency but surely it can't do any harm to ask the question "We want to buy 500 camping passes for Club Arnage members, can we do it in one booking and get the allocation we want?"

This is very close to what we have tried to do this year, could we put our forms in early and ask for them to be processed together given that we knew we were looking at numbered pitches for MB.

The ACO said they would accept the forms (clearly no guarantees) and here we are mainly be allocated Bleu Nord!!!

However, I think the ACO have been in difficulty this year because of the works on the campsites and the uncertainty that this has caused.  Last June when we put the orders in most of this was an unknown to us and probably to most of the ACO! 

I think we should give them feedback - I guess starting with those of us who requested MB and get Bleu (which of course most of us don't know) - I think their short answer will be "we've got a much smaller campsite now we can't fit everyone one" which appears to be true. 

Their second answer will be that they will accomodate us as a group but on BSJ and at the premium that they charge for reserving our own chunk of space 

what looks to have changed is their process of dealing with forms "in order" from when they are received. 

[Petra]

Im over at my parents in april but its 2 months off 

You live in Februari? 

[Robspot]

Where's Februari? A little island in the Pacific maybe