The great thing about endurance racing and Le Mans in particular, is that practice week and the practice cessions themselves are so long. The cessions for the 62 cars of the main event are three hours each. To put that into perspective, an F1 Grand Prix is about 90 minutes, whilst a MototGP is about 45 minutes. OK, if you are a team and have a serious problem, then three hours might just flash by, but for a paying spectator, it’s bloody good value.
I bicycled up to Mulsanne, which is about 15 minutes. From the entry check point it’s maybe 10 minutes walk to Mulsanne Corner, along the sprint (ie against the direction of the cars) as they hurtle towards Indianapolis / Arnage, where my camper van is. I arrived in time to buy a beer and stand in several good spots to snap some pictures. I guess I spent an hour there. I then pedalled back to the Armage campsite and watched for another half hour from there. They are still going round now. That is good value, as my entry ticket runs from last Friday, right through to a week on Monday.
The other great thing about coming to practice week is, besides no great crowds, you get a chance to see all the cars, many of which will either change liveries for Le Mans and / or there’ll be some in the field of 62 you’ve not seen before. It’s a good way to orientate yourself. As the slower cars are lapped in about seven or eight laps (20 minutes) practice looks pretty much like the race itself, as the cars are all jumbled up. Sometimes you’ll just see one car on its own, then (just as suddenly) you’ll see five or more all dicing against the clock and each other. I guess it’s the purest form of racing, rather like the long distance Olympic running races are very different to the 100 metres sprint.
I bicycled up to Mulsanne, which is about 15 minutes. From the entry check point it’s maybe 10 minutes walk to Mulsanne Corner, along the sprint (ie against the direction of the cars) as they hurtle towards Indianapolis / Arnage, where my camper van is. I arrived in time to buy a beer and stand in several good spots to snap some pictures. I guess I spent an hour there. I then pedalled back to the Armage campsite and watched for another half hour from there. They are still going round now. That is good value, as my entry ticket runs from last Friday, right through to a week on Monday.
The other great thing about coming to practice week is, besides no great crowds, you get a chance to see all the cars, many of which will either change liveries for Le Mans and / or there’ll be some in the field of 62 you’ve not seen before. It’s a good way to orientate yourself. As the slower cars are lapped in about seven or eight laps (20 minutes) practice looks pretty much like the race itself, as the cars are all jumbled up. Sometimes you’ll just see one car on its own, then (just as suddenly) you’ll see five or more all dicing against the clock and each other. I guess it’s the purest form of racing, rather like the long distance Olympic running races are very different to the 100 metres sprint.
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