MY WEEKEND AT LE MANS

Global motorsport attention turns every June to the Le Mans 24 Hour.

What makes the race so special is that, apart from being the greatest sports car contest in the world, it forms part of mystical – but unofficial – Triple Crown of motorsport.

The three legs are the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans.

Amazingly, 1960s grand prix star Graham Hill – the father of fellow world champion Damon Hill – is the only driver to have completed the Triple Crown.

There are 19 drivers who have competed in all three legs of the Triple Crown and have won at least one of the events, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Fernando Alonso the only active drivers to have won two of the three events.

Other notable two-leg winners are F1 stars Jochen Rindt and Bruce McLaren plus US legend Mario Andretti.

What makes these races so special is the history, the venues, and the enormity of the events themselves.

For me, a journey to the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hour was epic.

Like most people in motorsport, I'm a fan at heart.

I decided to visit Le Mans for several reasons rather than the other two classics at Monaco and Indy.

I became a sports car tragic having been totally sold while working as a photographer at the ill-fated World Sports Car Championship rounds in 1984 and 1988 at Sandown. So Le Mans was a logical extension.

From an F1 perspective I had been fortunate to work at all the Adelaide GPs plus visiting events in Malaysia and Europe and had seen IndyCars on the Gold Coast and the streets of Toronto.

The Indy 500 did come a close second to Le Mans.

The trip began with contact to my great mate and legendary photographer Andrew Hall about media access, but I but had left my run too late.

But ‘Skippy’ was there for one of his many 'farewell tour' trips – it's number 19 in 2025 – and kindly dived his the archives for the superb images that accompany this story.

So, thinking 'What the hell', I decided to go as a spectator and enjoy the event.

Around March 2008, another great friend, retired racer Richard Davison and I were chatting and unbeknown to either of us, he was also planning to go. His eldest son Alex was driving in the factory-assisted Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, so it made sense.

We decided that we would hook up with one of the many tour packages out of London which provided transport, accommodation, and a venue on course, which – after paying for the full deal – provided meals and booze and shelter from the elements. This proved to be wise.

So, on a dark and wet London morning, I was at Victoria Station waiting to board the ‘Le Mans’ bus with around 25 other blokes all escaping families and wives to go on their annual trip. A good bunch they were too.

Davo by this time had managed to get a Michelin upgrade thanks to his partner Fiona and said he would "See you there". Oh well, good for some.

The bus trip took most of Friday but was a cool way to see the countryside, catching the ferry to Calais from the White Cliffs of Dover then journeying down to Le Mans and arriving at dinner time. A host of speeding convoys of Porsches, Ferraris and Lotuses kept us amused – and so did the big blue FIA steaming by on our trip south.

Our accommodation was about 8kms from the track and we were on our way early on Saturday morning. Just as we arrived in the bus park, then headed to the rather impressive facility that would be home for the next 30 plus hours, a full field of historic Group C cars got our attention. Silk Cut Jags, Porsche 962s and a host of C2 cars. Absolutely brilliant, and boy did they race them.

Lunch was up and a visit from eventual race winner Alan McNish, Johnny Mowlem and our MC Tim Harvey – a start of the BTCC in the 1990s and a Bathurst visitor during the Super Touring days – was a good warm-up. The wrist band we were issued signified we were the fully-paid-up Corporate Members of the Le Mans Club which I soon discovered had a major benefit at the bar for the next day and a half.

As others forked out huge amounts of Euros with every round, I just showed them my wrist. But, enough of that.

The race. In 2008 Le Mans was a battle between the LMP1 entries of the Audi R10 TDI and the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. There were three each of the main contenders. and bolstering the LMP1 class were 16 normally-aspirated V8s from the likes of Lola, Courage and Pescarolo, and a further 10 LMP 2 cars.

In this era a huge number of the 55 entries were indeed prototypes across the two classes. Of note were two entries rejected by the ACO organisers from Team Penske, which had submitted their ALMS winning Porsche RS Spyder Evos from IMSA racing in the USA. The French had very strict criteria to successfully knock back The Captain.

The GT1 and GT2 classes, as they were known then, were dominated by the ubiquitous yellow Chevy Corvettes, then Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin. So little has changed on that front in the past 13 years.

At precisely 3.00pm, after a long build-up of pageantry on the grid, the field of 55 cars rolled around in front of 258,000 spectators. Catching up with Richard and Fiona, we gained access to the pits and grid to wish Alex all the best in his Porsche and soak in the amazing atmosphere as the cars sat angled at 45 degrees to the Pit Straight with their crews and drivers.

The crowd is immense but more of that later. The three Peugeot 908 HDi FAPs led the field into the first chicane, but Allan McNish overtook the #7 Peugeot of Nicolas Minassian at the exit of the Dunlop Chicane. Minassian retook the position on the Mulsanne Straight, and the Peugeots maintained the top three positions at the end of the first lap.

The Peugeots were running consistently three seconds a lap faster than McNish, and over five seconds faster than the other two Audis. Vantage points around the 14-kilometre track are superb, but not all that easy to reach.

From our hospitality tent located at the run into the final chicane and neighbouring the iconic Ferris wheel, a tunnel takes you under the track and then you can wander to Tetre Rouge corner and the areas around the famous Dunlop Bridge.

Around dusk, a group of us decided to head to Arnage corner, but this required a shuttle bus from our area and a pick-up every hour. Watching the cars fire down through Indianapolis and into the slow Arnage Corner was amazing and the speed of the ‘oh–so–quiet’ turbodiesel V10s was jaw dropping. Confidence in your actions at Le Mans is needed in spades.

Fighting through some very pissed French spectators who decided to make our shuttle bus their own was an interesting end to Arnage, but the wrist band got us moving once again back to base to check standings and grab some more refreshments.

On track, as so often occurs at Le Mans, the weather played a deft hand in way the race unfolded. At the 12-hour mark Peugeot still led and, around this time, Richard and I decided to head off on foot to the Porsche Curves.

We had picked up an enthusiastic American as we wandered up to the famous stretch of track what struck me was the vastness of the whole precinct and in turn how each nationality had become ‘owners’ of various areas.

At the Porsche Curves, it was the Dutch. Hundreds of spectators with Dutch flags, campfires and the smell of sausages mixed with plenty of Heineken ensured you knew where you were.

The English and French also have their own ‘enclaves’ at La Sarthe.

As we were watching in awe the mix of LMP1/2 cars and the slower GT cars through the Porsche Curve section it began raining. One of the things lensman Hall had said was to make sure to have your camera out for the sunrise.

Well, if grey skies, rain and low cloud is anyone’s idea of a brilliant sunrise at Le Mans, it was not mine. So, the second half of the race was effectively run under wet conditions and GT1 cars were as fast as the leading LMPI factory cars.

The Audis coped with the rain much better than the Peugeots and Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen was able to reel in Nicholas Minassian at around eight seconds a lap.

In a desperate attempt to adapt the Peugeots to the wet conditions all three cars were fitted with high-downforce nose and tail sections but at 5am the #2 Audi grabbed the lead and McNish was able to build the advantage to a full lap. But then the rain stopped and the leading Peugeot started close on the top Audi.

With less than three hours to go the rain returned and Minassian spun on slicks and the race was handed to Audi thanks to McNish, Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello. It had been a gripping battle with both the lead cars on the same lap and only 4 minutes 31 seconds apart.

It is easy to see how this euro-centric event attracts nearly a quarter of a million people. It is without doubt one of the key corners of the Triple Crown.

So, it was back to the bus and a fun dinner at the hotel, all telling tales of our adventures. The bus trip to London the next day seemed like an eternity but Le Mans had been everything I expected and more. But definitely not the weather . . .