RSS_Auto_Poster
Well-known member
Written by Jason Barlow
Get a grid pass before any race and you have the equivalent of Willy Wonka"s golden ticket. At Le Mans, there are 60 cars waiting to go, three times the number on a Formula One grid, but somehow they generate 10 times the human grid traffic jostling for a look. So it"s busier than Tokyo"s central station on a Monday morning, but as proximity to the cars and drivers is one of this race"s signatures, everyone gets stuck in.We manage to get hold of Marino Franchitti and Harry Tincknell, two of the no.67 Ford"s three pilots, for a quick catch-up. Harry seems a little more on edge than Marino, but still sub-zero cool given his mere 24 years. Our chat with Marino is interrupted by none other than Edsel Ford, great grandson of Henry Ford himself, who attended the 1966 race as an 18-year old.Ford goes big on the family feel, but standing beside the scion of the car world"s best-known dynasty while he talks to one of his drivers it"s obvious it"s not just spin. The handshake and embrace is genuinely warm.Of course, Le Mans wouldn"t be Le Mans if it didn"t immediately sling in a giant curveball. Firstly, there"s the weather. We were here on Thursday night when pace car driver Yannick Dalmas became an internet sensation following a major save in his Audi R8, during a post-apocalyptic downpour. (The race broadcast feed cuts to Porsche driver Mark Webber, who does the internationally recognised imaginary dab-of-oppo" gesture. And he"s racing a 919.)Well, it happens again bang on 3pm local time, dousing the entire field in several million litres of water, throwing strategies to the wind, before clearing off again, damage done. The safety car is out for so long the crowd starts booing.I find myself in the main grandstand, chatting to a Scottish Top Gear fan, who"s attended every Le Mans since 1990 and drove all the way from Glasgow the night before. Turns out he"s called David Cameron. "I know, I know," he says with the rueful smile of a man who probably has to deal with the same sodding gags every single day.Bicycles. They"re generally very useful, but if you really want to get around this huge circuit, bring a bike or, better still, rent one. We find a great little outfit in the support paddock, end up with three folding bikes, and head off towards Arnage and Indianapolis as dusk settles on Saturday night.This is the true face of this magnificent race, and a few hours down here reminds you a) how committed the fans are, b) there"s some great Merguez sausage out here, and c) how utterly demented the current generation LMP1 cars are.They might be uglier than a family of bulldogs chewing their way through a hornet"s nest, but we will look back and marvel at the engineering genius of these things.Failure to return the bike, meanwhile, results in a 200 charge to your credit card. TG"s editor-in-chief Charlie decides that this is such a bargain that he buys his bike, slathers Ford stickers all over it, and then gets Ford team boss, the formidable Chip Ganassi, to sign the frame at 2.15am. Chip is not a man easily confused but he might have met his match here.I bump into a Danish journalist called Henrik, who"s writing up an alternative guide to Le Mans. Naturally, this includes car-spotting. "I tell everyone to aim for the camp-sites where all the British guys are staying," he tells me, "because that"s where all the cool cars are. The tax on new cars was recently lowered from 180 to 150 per cent in Denmark, and the government was very pleased with itself. They need to visit one of those British camp-sites." As should we allIt"s 10am as I write this. After 19 hours racing and 300 laps, a mere 27 seconds separates the top three (two Toyotas and a Porsche). In the GTE-Pro category, the gap between the leading Ferrari 488 and the Ford GT is currently five seconds. Greatest race in the world? You bet.
Date written: 19 Jun 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 3909
Get a grid pass before any race and you have the equivalent of Willy Wonka"s golden ticket. At Le Mans, there are 60 cars waiting to go, three times the number on a Formula One grid, but somehow they generate 10 times the human grid traffic jostling for a look. So it"s busier than Tokyo"s central station on a Monday morning, but as proximity to the cars and drivers is one of this race"s signatures, everyone gets stuck in.We manage to get hold of Marino Franchitti and Harry Tincknell, two of the no.67 Ford"s three pilots, for a quick catch-up. Harry seems a little more on edge than Marino, but still sub-zero cool given his mere 24 years. Our chat with Marino is interrupted by none other than Edsel Ford, great grandson of Henry Ford himself, who attended the 1966 race as an 18-year old.Ford goes big on the family feel, but standing beside the scion of the car world"s best-known dynasty while he talks to one of his drivers it"s obvious it"s not just spin. The handshake and embrace is genuinely warm.Of course, Le Mans wouldn"t be Le Mans if it didn"t immediately sling in a giant curveball. Firstly, there"s the weather. We were here on Thursday night when pace car driver Yannick Dalmas became an internet sensation following a major save in his Audi R8, during a post-apocalyptic downpour. (The race broadcast feed cuts to Porsche driver Mark Webber, who does the internationally recognised imaginary dab-of-oppo" gesture. And he"s racing a 919.)Well, it happens again bang on 3pm local time, dousing the entire field in several million litres of water, throwing strategies to the wind, before clearing off again, damage done. The safety car is out for so long the crowd starts booing.I find myself in the main grandstand, chatting to a Scottish Top Gear fan, who"s attended every Le Mans since 1990 and drove all the way from Glasgow the night before. Turns out he"s called David Cameron. "I know, I know," he says with the rueful smile of a man who probably has to deal with the same sodding gags every single day.Bicycles. They"re generally very useful, but if you really want to get around this huge circuit, bring a bike or, better still, rent one. We find a great little outfit in the support paddock, end up with three folding bikes, and head off towards Arnage and Indianapolis as dusk settles on Saturday night.This is the true face of this magnificent race, and a few hours down here reminds you a) how committed the fans are, b) there"s some great Merguez sausage out here, and c) how utterly demented the current generation LMP1 cars are.They might be uglier than a family of bulldogs chewing their way through a hornet"s nest, but we will look back and marvel at the engineering genius of these things.Failure to return the bike, meanwhile, results in a 200 charge to your credit card. TG"s editor-in-chief Charlie decides that this is such a bargain that he buys his bike, slathers Ford stickers all over it, and then gets Ford team boss, the formidable Chip Ganassi, to sign the frame at 2.15am. Chip is not a man easily confused but he might have met his match here.I bump into a Danish journalist called Henrik, who"s writing up an alternative guide to Le Mans. Naturally, this includes car-spotting. "I tell everyone to aim for the camp-sites where all the British guys are staying," he tells me, "because that"s where all the cool cars are. The tax on new cars was recently lowered from 180 to 150 per cent in Denmark, and the government was very pleased with itself. They need to visit one of those British camp-sites." As should we allIt"s 10am as I write this. After 19 hours racing and 300 laps, a mere 27 seconds separates the top three (two Toyotas and a Porsche). In the GTE-Pro category, the gap between the leading Ferrari 488 and the Ford GT is currently five seconds. Greatest race in the world? You bet.
Date written: 19 Jun 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 3909