Saturday - The Race Build-up

I stayed up far too late on Friday night as the campsites are a huge party - a bit like Christmas Eve and New Years Eve all rolled into one - and the fireworks were awesome, best that I have seen. I just managed to see the AMOC track parade at 7.45am before I went back for another hours sleep. Thus, I missed the Le Mans classics - the thing is, you can only do so much before you get totally exhausted in the heat. So I got to the Tribunes at lunchtime to capture the build up to the race proper. Initially, the cars are sealed by officials from the ACO to make sure that they are not changed during the race and that the air restrictors stay in place. Then they are rolled out onto the start/finish straight in echelon formation whilst the drivers are presented to the crowd from the back of Audi Cabriolets.

007 started from row 10, the leading GT1 car, with Darren Turner at the wheel. Sister car 009 with Pedro Lamy at the wheel started from row 10 beside 63 Corvette, the principal opposition. The Italian DBR9, number 69 started on row 12 and the privately entered Russian Age Racing 62 with David Brabham started from row 16.