Day three ... rain ...

Day three @ Le Mans ... you’ll never beleive it, but it was a wet one ... Allmost all day it has been raining over here, I allmost gave up on it. Still, in a way we are the lucky ones, stayin in a camper instead of a tent. I don’t think I’d survive this weather in a tent anymore.

And so we counted down the hours to the start of the 6-hour practice session. Surprisingly, round 5pm the sun brake through the clouds ... could it be we’re having a dry practice session ? We headed onto the Dunlop chicane, put myself at the back of the grandstand and while te sun kept on shining, the first cars were unleashed at the track. We were lucky, and had a dry session for allmost 2 hours, from then on it was rain (again and again). Sometimes a few minutes dry, but afterwards the water kept on coming down. After the Dunlop we headed onto a grandstand opposite the pitboxes, the new terras at the Welcome centre in the village and (off course) had a few “crêpes Grand Marnier” ... no better way to end another drowned day.

Unlike other years, the grandstands weren’t crowded at all (except for the Dunlop and T23 grandstands), the wet weather scared most people off apparently ... you actually can ’t blame them. Weather predictions look much better for tomorrow, let’s hope we’ll see the sun more then in the past 3 days !

Le Mans 2009 ... Day 2 ... When you thought Monday was wet, think again ... Yes, it could have been worse, yes today was even worse ...

We arrived at the scrutineering when the first Aston Martin was rolled into the scrutineering area, just in time to attack the other 2 Astons with my camera. A soon as they rolled another one in, it started raining (again), and that seemed to be what was going to happen during the rest of the day. As soon as a car came from under a tent, it just started to rain heavily. Not once, not twive, but all day long. At the mid-session break, I wanted to give up, head back to the camper and maybe go to the museum ... One coffee later, and the sun that came through made me change my mind.
It even stayed dry for another hour, but that was the last luck we had ... it started raining again, and this time it was for real. We got completely soaked, camera’s started to have trouble with the water, but I got some great “rainshots”. When the Luc Alphand Corvettes were rolled in, we gave up and headed back to Blue Nord.

I’m curious about the weather tomorrow, according to the local aboriginals, it should get better. On the other hand, I’m getting used to the rain so a nice ‘dash’ of an hour or two wouldn’t hurt ... even if it’s just to have some spectaculair pictures ...

Day 1 is almost over and it was a wet one. We arrived at Le Mans this morning on 8 am, not even ten minuten later it started raining badly ... The campsite Blue Nord wasn’t open yet, as we saw several motorhomes waiting te get in, so we decided to head up to the Carrefour to do some shopping and have a quick nap in the camper.

At 2 pm, we decided to leave the camper at the Carrefour-parking and take the tram from there on to the village, so we could take a look at the scrutineering. Meanwhile it stopped raining and even the sun broke through the clouds ... unfortunately not for long, so ‘round 5 we decided to head back to the camper, have a quick dinner and get onto Blue Nord. The scrutineering itself as great, you can get right next to the cars and a great opportunity to take some up and close pictures and get to the drivers.

Surprisingly, this year the “securité” at Blue Nord has a readable plan in their hands, they even pointed us to the right spot instead of dropping you off somewhere. Blue Nord is rather empty for the moment, no doubt that will change by tomorrowevening or Wednesdaymorning ...


Tomorrow an early rise to get to the village again and watch the scrutineering of Aston, Oreca and Pescarolo. Let’s hope the weather will be better as I’ll be out and about with lots of camerastuff ...

We're Off !!

All my bags are packed ... I'm ready to go ...

That's it ... The "Mansion" is ready and filled up and so are we ... off to Le Mans.
We should arrive there 'round 8 am, have a quick charge at the Carrefour and then on to Bleu Nord to find our campingspot. In the afternoon we'll be at the Scrutineering in the town centre, can't wait to get there !

The minor point of today is that my laptop with mobile internet died on me. I should have a solution with a French provider tomorrow, let's hope it 'll work.

For those who are leaving in the following hours or days, have a safe trip ... To those who can't make it this year, we'll see you next year and check this blog, we'll try to give you daily updates !!

Le Mans 2009

Time to get this blog back alive ... although it's been quiet here the past year(s), lots of things happened. I've builded my own tracktoy which I'm having lots of fun with on Zolder, Spa and of course mainly on the Nurburgring and for the past 2 years I kept on going to Daytona and several other race-venues.

Last year we went to the Nascar Daytona 500 and I've added the Sebring 12h ALMS race ro that, this year the Daytona 24hours and Daytona 500 were on the menu ... It's addictive, too addictive to let it pass by, so I guess I'm hooked to at least one trip a year to the States now.


Sundaynight we're leaving to another edition of the Le Mans 24h race. Since '96, I only missed 2 races, a year without Le Mans feels like a lost year ... ETA is Mondaymorning and we'll stay for the whole week. Scrutineering, practice sessions, qualifs, the classics race, the magical 24h, the parade in town, Mad Friday ... we'll be there ! Le Mans is my third 24h race this year (after Daytona and Nurburgring), but it's gonna be the best and it might be an epic one ... GO ASTON !

As usual there's got to be a problem before we take off ... Apparently my website www.raceshots.be has been hacked, so you'll get a security warning when you try to open it. I've asked the webmaster to take a look at it, untill then please do not use the website. When it's safe again, you'll read it here. In the week after the Le Mans race lots of gallery's will be online, starting at the scrutineering 'till the end of the race next week.

There's gonna be a daily update with a few pictures on this blog (given my mobile internet will work in France), so check here regulary for the latest news about our adventures at Le Mans ...