It is Saturday, it is Le Mans Classic and ‘the weather is here ..wish you were lovely’! I try and avoid clichés like the plague as you know.. actually the weather is unimpressive, cloudy, overcast with rain and with the threat of more to come. Despite that it is really rather busy. We get the feeling that it is far busier than it was two years ago when we are told 109,000 people braved the weather and came to watch. Someway to go then before it rivals the 263,000 spectators at the man event but still rather impressive for any type of motorsport outside F1.
The first thing that strikes you is how many ‘classic’ road cars there are in The Sarthe at the moment. Unlike the 24hrs of Le Mans everywhere you go you stumble upon groups of half a dozen or so enthusiasts happily haring around the minor roads having a ball. We had lunch about 40kms from Le Mans and were surrounded by a number of Healeys, a TR , Jensen, Lagonda and a crazy Simplex. (more of this later!).
It is not too surprising when you consider that there are 119 Motor Clubs of one sort or another parked up on the Bugatti Circuit alone. Porsche Club France has 900 cars here, while The TR Dorset Club have 8! Just to get you googling ( and to save us the trouble) ever heard of Les Amis des Automobiles Michel Hommell ( 15 cars) or Club Automobiles Martin?
Back in the main event the basic rules are relatively straightforward.. it gets harder as you go along!
There are Six ‘Grids’ , each grid starts the weekend with 75 cars so there are 450 cars here! To be eligible they have to be an example of a model that raced at Le Mans. If the actual car raced at Le Mans it gets priority of course. Each grid has six reserves. You are allowed a maximum of four drivers per car. Each race lasts 43 minutes and each grid gets three races. So your track time during the 24 hour period is about 2hrs 15 mins. However a considerable number of drivers are involved with driving more than one car which makes the project rather more financially attractive !
The date spans of the six grids are as follows:-
Grid One 1923-1939
Grid Two 1949-1959
Grid Three 1957-1961
Grid Four 1962-1965
Grid Five 1966-1971
Grid Six 1972 -1979
That will do for a start .. we will back later ..
Jock Simpson
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