2014 Le Mans Travel Recap

It's done: a full twenty four hours spent at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2014.  Reflecting back a few months after the race, I have to admit that it was quite fantastic.

Le Mans 2014 Magisto Video from rennie alba on Vimeo.

I don't think any of the nine of us exactly knew what to expect when we finally got to the start.  The French rail strike was a distraction for for several days, even hours before the event, and left those of us with TGV tickets from Paris wondering if we would actually arrive.  Others drove to Le Mans in rented cars or hitched rides with local friends traveling in the region.  As each person or group arrived arrived at the track on the outer edge of the town of Le Mans, we wandered through the grounds, found our seats on the Ford Chicane and watched the various pace laps, parachutists and other regalia and ceremonies leading to the drop on the green flag at 3pm.

24 hours at a single event?  I've been through some long operas and sat through 6 hours of Shakespeare's Roman Tragedies in Dutch (which was amazing, by the way!).  Been to multi-day music events.  Visited Walter DeMaria's Lighting Field, requiring  a full 24 hours with the artwork in the arid semi-desert of New Mexico.  

Le Mans was different from all of them. 

It may at first seem unnatural, but a comforting rhythm develops from the constant drone of racing cars blasting past.  The subtleties of the teams and vehicles begins to settle into the beat of the place and the feel of mid-3 minute laps becomes a gauge of time against the sun and changes in the weather.  The Toyota will be back in 3:37.  The Aston Martin in 3:45 .  The gap between those two cars is 0:15.  If there is a change, it can be sensed.

I read about and saw Mathew Day Jackson's artwork and the process and pastimes that push it - raw imagery and the straight line prowess of a drag race car on a weeknight.  At Le Mans, there is a brute and powerful reality to the vehicles hurling around the track.  It is extracted maximum raw potential massaged into a force of controllable, fast laps.

This monitored passage of time makes the duration more palleable, combined with the unknown factors of the race itself.  It is the mystery about what might come next.  The racers have a system to follow, but can it be done and executed to perfection? (or at least a bit better than everyone else).  Driver, team, car and engineers are working against subtle continual shifts in the environment and situations on the course, trying to move through it, quickly, over and over again. 

That is what makes racing of all kinds so fascinating, whether on foot, on bicycles, or in cars.

For Le Mans 2014, it was a great race with plenty of excitement - I'll leave the full recap to others, combined with a collection of pictures and video  montages from our own experience by Sara, Pete and Rennie.

For other practicalities for attendance, A Jalop's Guide to Attending the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 2013 was a perfect explanation of the logistics for how to do the race. We'd have been lost without it.  I'd supplement with the following updates and information:

• Tickets: We joined ACO for a few reasons.  1) Earlier access to ticket purchase before the general public;  2) Shipping the tickets to the US seemed more guranteed;  3) Because of the number of persons in our group, the cost of membership was more than offset by the ticket pricing discount provided to ACO members.  Note that the US is the only country where obtaining a new ACO membership is not possible online.  Instead, a direct call to France is required.
• The grandstands are monitored throughout the event:  Wonderfully polite young men and women checked tickets at entrances to every grandstand for the entire 24 hours.  No jumping between different seating areas is possible.  However, there are still acres and acres of track perimeter and infield to explore (though you can't go everywhere - more on that below).
• Definitely bring an FM radio and headphones: I could not have kept up with the race without it.  The announcements coming over the track loudspeakers can be found on FM 92.x (I forgot the exact number).  This broadcast is about 90% French, 6% English and 4% German.  A very slight adjustment of the thumb turn dial can pickup Radio Le Mans on an adjacent frequency in full English with commentary by a group of British announcers.  This was absolutely fantastic to have throughout the race.  The signal faded in and out a bit but could usually be re-acquired with some antenna and radio adjustment.  Shure SE215 earbuds under earmuffs worked very well.
• Sleep:  you'll have to do it.  Each of us tried different methods for grabbing some rest, wrapping ourselves in blankets, tarps or 6mil polyethylene sheeting.  The smartest of us brought along a survival-style sleeping Bivouac sack that could easily roll into a backpack.  But after barely sleeping in windy conditions in low 50s F overnight temperatures, we were all physically wrecked by Sunday afternoon.  But that's part of the experience, right?  If I did it again, I'd consider bringing in a small, lightweight tent and find a grassy spot among the campers for a few hours of sleep time.

In the end, I think we were only disappointed by how little of the track is actually accessible for viewing.  The track is 8.4 miles around and it seems that barely two miles of it is readily visible between the end of Maison Blanche (among the campsites) and the vicinity of the Tertre Rouge (adjacent to the track entrance nearest the city tram).  We never figured out the shuttle bus system so we did a lot of walking, everywhere.

The massive scale of the race course could only be understood by watching the television helicopters fly above the circuit, moving out to the distant horizon then circling back and overhead to the S/F line.  When we first arrived on Saturday, the helicopters were lazily flying along the horizon.  But when the first race laps began, their speed increased dramatically, "Sheez, those helis are really moving!"  They may not have even been moving as fast as the cars along the straights.

In a serendipitous coincidence, the race took place on Father's Day.  One of us had found the Porsche tent and bought a limited edition 919 badge to commemorate the manufacturer's return to Le Mans.  It was a nice surprise to present it to my father during the race.  He had it framed with the tickets and other memorabilia from the race.

And on a final note, less than a week after returning to the U.S., one of us went and bought a Pontiac Le Mans.