Photos - 24 Hours of Le Mans

Oh good lord, it was everything I'd hoped and more. We stayed right on the track, in the "Audi Hotel" - a sort of bunker with tiny, spartan cubicles with paper thin walls. Sleep was impossible, as you could hear the race cars roar by as if they were going through the building. I walked miles and miles, punch drunk from lack of sleep, took over 3,000 pictures. Emailed and cajoled many of my press contacts back home and managed to get into a couple of the pits. Now I've got about a month's worth of illustration and writing to do for several different papers and magazines. Ahhhh... it was glorious!! Here are some of the pictures. Most poignant is the shot of the Aston Martin team with the 95 car just before the start. :-(

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63242314@N08/

You should have warned us about the Fiat pics! Thanks for sharing the Le Mans shots!

Sorry about that

<== jealous

Lesley wrote: Oh good lord, it was everything I'd hoped and more. We stayed right on the track, in the "Audi Hotel" - a sort of bunker with tiny, spartan cubicles with paper thin walls. Sleep was impossible, as you could hear the race cars roar by as if they were going through the building. I walked miles and miles, punch drunk from lack of sleep, took over 3,000 pictures. Emailed and cajoled many of my press contacts back home and managed to get into a couple of the pits. Now I've got about a month's worth of illustration and writing to do for several different papers and magazines. Ahhhh... it was glorious!! Here are some of the pictures. Most poignant is the shot of the Aston Martin team with the 95 car just before the start. :-( http://www.flickr.com/photos/63242314@N08/

It sounds glorious. I'm glad you were able to experience it.

Oh, and +1 for historic liveries

Oh my dear sweet fluffy lord! Wonderful shots, even the Fiat ones!

Me too. We visited the SRT pit around 10 at night where we found Ralph Gilles. He's such a genuine guy, obviously thrilled to be there – and he broke into a huge smile when he saw us. Unfortunately we couldn't go into the hot area right then as they were having some issues, but were invited back the next day into their hospitality suite directly above (the windows open so you can hang over and watch the activity in the pit below). It was pretty cool to watch the incredible choreography of the pit guys.

...and crazy ones

06HHR wrote: Oh my dear sweet fluffy lord! Wonderful shots, even the Fiat ones!

Thanks! I borrowed a really good camera with telephoto lens. I was DETERMINED I would get a good shot of the Dunlop bridge – which entailed walking MILES. Holy hell that's a big track and there were about 500,000 people there. It's not like ALMS, where you can easily see the cars. There are a lot of high walls everywhere and the open areas with wire fences are several thousand people deep in fans. The fences are topped with razor wire. By the time I got far enough down the track to get the right shot of the cars coming under the bridge, I had to take roughly 100 pictures, experimenting with the lens which wanted to focus on the fence (I have some fabulous macro shots of wire with blurry cars behind...)

The other shot I really wanted was the cars coming into the final turn with the carousel and "Le Mans" surface logo clearly visible. I had access to all of Audi's private areas (holy hell, that was an exercise in unbelievable hedonism, with private chefs, leather beanbags to crash on, all white furniture, 100s of food stations, free drinks and numerous balconies to shoot from) but I couldn't quite get the shot I needed. Walked for what seemed like miles through the crowds and climbed to the top of one of the grandstands where I finally got the view I wanted. It was a pretty chilling feeling looking through the pictures later and seeing the smiling Aston team around #95. I'm really glad I was out walking while the accident occurred.

Lesley wrote: Me too. We visited the SRT pit around 10 at night where we found Ralph Gilles.

saw your pic with him. The few interviews I've seen with him make him seem like a really genuine car guy. He'd probably be tickled about the fact that we currently have a viper thread, with multiple requests in it for a GRM build.

BTW, the pic of Ralph and me was his idea! He handed his cell to someone to take it, and then posted it on Twitter. How many car CEOs are that cool? Ole Kallenius, head of AMG, ate at our table on the CLA 45 AMG launch a couple of weeks ago, and while he's nice and chatty – he's 100% executive material, although it's pretty berkeleying hilarious if you get him talking about arch-nemesis Audi.

Where's the thread? I drove the new Viper yesterday at Chrysler's Chelsea proving grounds. Loved everything about it but the sound. AMG has the exhaust part note beat, hands-down.

Lesley wrote: Where's the thread? I drove the new Viper yesterday at Chrysler's Chelsea proving grounds. Loved everything about it but the sound. AMG has the exhaust part note beat, hands-down.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/are-vipers-grm-yet/66200/page1/

The take home seemed to be "drives like a miata with balls" (my summary of the whole thread)

JoeyM wrote: ...and crazy ones

Great pics Lesley! I really hope someone makes a model of this. Doing the decals is my favorite part. First, because it brings the model to life and more importantly, it means I'm almost DONE! Remember, autofocus is like traction control you can always turn it off.

Thanks! I was experimenting with someone else's camera, so a few of them were hit & miss. But overall I was pleased, since I managed to get the shots I needed for some later illustrations. I can't recommend the experience highly enough, it was everything I imagined and more.

Some very nice shots. But whats up with the mairobrothers showing up......

I have no idea! There were also several people dressed like giant stuffed animals. Dunno if they were "plushies" but it was interesting, to say the least.

Great pictures!

Good job, Lesley!

Looks like one of those great times where it's so much fun it's hard to be tired....until it's over...

Awesome pics Lesley!

btw, what kinda camera?

Thanks!

It was a Canon, 5D. I gave up using a DSLR five or six years ago, since it's just so much easier to travel with my little Canon S90, but for an event like this a good camera is just mandatory!

Neat pics.