Page 167 - Paddock Life Issue 13 ADRENALINE

a power nap in the back seat myself. Rolling in to the accreditation centre at about 8am Friday morning to collect our passes. We drove in to the circuit timing the traffic perfectly (last year it was grid lock when we arrived) past rows and rows of parked cars and vans, every piece of grass or footpath was not just parked on, but camped on, like a huge sprawling festival. Our car pass took us though one of the closest campsites to the track and it was full. But these weren’t individual tents, they were “camps” flying their national flags, some with huge rows of BBQ’s, others with sound systems and pretty much all with very well stocked supplies of beer. Clearly this was as big a part of the weekend as the race. We drove through and out onto the service road to the circuit and were directed to the media parking.
Fortunately, there is a media village right next to our car park, made of stacked porta-cabins for TV production companies, various broadcast trucks and mobile offices, but most importantly lines of very well presented toilet and shower blocks. So, washed, refreshed and changed we headed on up toward the paddock. We had been invited to
hang out with our friends at Vaillante Rebellion Racing, so the first stop was their hospitality to say hi and get some breakfast. They run a team of two LMP2 cars using Oreca 07 chassis and the Gibson engines, drivers Nicolas Prost, Bruno Senna and Julien Canal pilot car #31, whilst Nelson Piquet Jr, Mathias Beche and David Heinemeier Hanson pilot car #13. Most of the guys were around and seemed in very good form in the hospitality unit Friday morning.
Itwastimetogotowork,soItookJennyona tour of the garages and working paddock to introduce ourselves to the team in the Vaillante Rebellion garages. They were more than happy to
explain how everything works to Le Mans virgin Jenny. By the time we’d been in to say hello to the United Racing guys and spent a bit of time in the Beechdean Aston Martin garage, as we know these guys well from British GT there was just time to get up on the Tribune and see some cars running in the support races, before heading out for an early dinner and a good night’s sleep.
Back at the circuit on Saturday morning everything is building up to the highlight of the weekend when the lights go out at 3pm for the start of the race. An early lunch courtesy of the Rebellion boys, and very nice it was too (thanks chaps) and it’s time to go to the grid for the main pre-race pit and grid walk.
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