Le Mans Classic 2010
Antony Fraser and I motored from his Chichester home to Portsmouth in our white charger, a 997 Carrera press car kindly loaned by Porsche GB, and boarded the Brittany Ferries’ Mont St Michel ferry to Caen. An entertaining trip with Lotus technical guru Nick Adams and his Land Rover mate Simon, and then a two-hour run through Normandy to the circuit. Le Mans is so vast, compared with Silverstone, Goodwood, even the Nurburgring, that it takes ages to locate the designated car park and then trudge to signing on – not that I’m complaining or anything, just that it was 38 degrees. So the air con press office with its grandstand view of the start-finish straight was bliss!
With six ‘plateaux’ or grids for different eras of racing, from 1923 through to 1979, concentrating in the ’60s and ’70s, we snapped some of the most exciting racing cars there have ever been. Ferrari P3 and 512, Lola T70s, Porsche 917 and 936, stunning. Our mission was to cover the event for three Porsche mags – 911 & Porsche World, Classic Porsche and Porsche Post, and BMW Car which kept us plenty busy. It was 40 years since Porsche first won Le Mans and there wasa 40-car parade of Porsches to celebrate, with Vic Elford and Gerard Larrousse among the heroes giving them an airing. Our mission was to interview 1970′s winning drivers Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood, who we caught in the Porsche pavilion before the racing started. We stayed late at the track on the Saturday night, and ended Sunday afternoon at Arnage. A really fantastic weekend. Check out my photos on this website!