Texas

For a few years now, Paul has wanted to go to the Lone Star Le Mans event at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, Zoë thought the weather would be too hot for her, but I went along too for the adventure. We started early on Thursday morning at Heathrow Airport, we had a Bacon roll and Coffee for breakfast while we were waiting for our flight. Once we got on the plane, it was quite an empty flight, so I got a seat all to myself!

After arriving in America, one of the first things we did was to go shopping, Paul wanted to get some things for Zoë, we went to this enormous Walmart.

After our shopping trip we went into Austin and had a local speciality, Brisket with BBQ sauce, it was delicious.

After a good night of sleep after our long day travelling, we went to the Circuit of the Americas on Friday to see some motor racing, we could visit any of the grandstands we wanted and we got to walk in the pit lane before the racing got underway, it was very hot, I think Zoë made the right decision not to come!

Saturday was the main race day. We went to visit the Corvette Corral where the Corvette owners park their cars, there was so many of them! A friend of Paul’s kindly organised for us to go and see the racing Corvettes in the garage, it was very exciting!

While we were at the Corvette garage I got to meet Olly Gavin, one of the drivers of the #4 Corvette!

After all the excitement we were quite hungry, so we stopped for a hot dog. 

Finally it was time for the racing to get underway, first of all the IMSA race, I was cheering on the Corvettes as usual.

Before the WEC race there was a meet the driver session, I got to meet my old friend Bruno Senna again.

After even more excitement, we needed more food, so we stopped again for another hot dog!

The WEC race went on into the night, and they even had a fireworks display as it was going on.

After two days in Austin at the Motor Racing, we went to Dallas to do something else Paul enjoys, watching Baseball, the Texas Rangers were playing the Oakland Athletics, if anything it was even hotter here than at the Motor Racing, Zoë would have melted.

On our last night in Texas, we went out for Steak, with Fries, and MacNCheese, one of Paul’s favourites.

I am glad I went along on the trip, I had a great time!

Le Mans 2016: The Race

We had Grandstand tickets and went to our seats for the start of the race so we could get the best view. Unfortunately it started raining just before the race was due to get underway. The race was started under the safety car and stayed that way for most of the first hour.

The sun came out again and we went racing!

We walked further around the track to watch from Tertre Rouge and the inside of the Forest Esses.

We went back to the pit straight and timed it right to see both Corvette Racing cars come in for pit stops.

The sun set and we walked back to the Porsche Curves where we could watch from the Travel Destinations campsite viewing bank.

The number 47 KCMG LMP2 car went off in front of us and we watched the marshals recover it before getting a bit of sleep just before 2am.

About five hours later we were back! Unfortunately our favourite car, the 64 Corvette, crashed out of the race just as we were getting up again.

In the daylight we could get a good view of the 47 car behind the barriers.

As the morning went on it got sunnier and warmer. Sunday turned into a really nice day.

We listened to Radio Le Mans all through the race so we always knew what was going on.

There was so much still happening in the last couple of hours of the race, but nothing more dramatic than the race leading number 5 Toyota LMP1 car breaking down a few minutes before the end of the race when it was so close to winning. 

The number 2 Porsche won from the number 6 Toyota and the number 8 Audi was in third.

It was a great race in LMP1 but the way it ended was such a shock! 

It was a shame that Corvette Racing didn’t have a better race, but there was a lot of action in LMGTE Pro with the Ford GT cars battling with the Risi Competizione Ferrari.

After the race we drove to Calais on Sunday evening and stayed at the Novotel Suite hotel that is very handy for the Channel crossings.

On Monday morning Zoë and I enjoyed the buffet breakfast before catching our P&O Ferry back to the UK.

Le Mans 2016: Before the Race

We set off for France last Thursday on a P&O Ferry to Calais.

We drove down to Le Mans stopping a couple of times, including at our favourite services in the countryside.

We arrived at about 10.30pm in a very heavy rain shower! We stayed with Travel Destinations in one of their Event Tents, a very nicely fitted out bell tent. We were extremely happy that we didn’t have to put up a tent in the rain!

The final qualifying session was disrupted by the rain, but we got to see the last fifteen minutes before the end of the session at midnight.

The next morning we could admire the field of bell tents and have some coffee at the campsite food tent.

On Friday the pit lane was open so we were able to go and see all the cars up close. 

As always we were supporting Corvette Racing in LMGTE Pro and the two other Corvettes in LMGTE Am, but I was also excited by the Algarve Pro Racing number 25 car in LMP2 that has Sir Chris Hoy as one of its drivers!

After walking down the pit lane we could go on the track up to the Dunlop Bridge. It was fun to walk on the circuit!

We also got to see the race winners trophy.

On Saturday morning we watched the support races from the Porsche Curves.

Now we just had a couple of hours to wait until the race start!

America Day 8: Lime Rock Park

On Saturday we went to Lime Rock Park to see an ALMS race. It was great to see the Corvette Racing cars in action.

We walked around the Corvette Corral and saw loads of cool cars including the new C7 that comes out later this year.

It was a really, really hot day so Zoë and I spent the whole day sat in the shade. We had a great view of the track from where we were sat.

On the way home we stopped at Olive Garden for dinner. We food was massive.

Le Mans 2012: The Corvettes

For our weekend at Le Mans we stayed at the Corvette Corral. The Corvette Corral is brilliant, there is an area for parking, space to camp, a raised viewing platform, and a marquee with TV, seating and food.

There were lots of corvettes to look at.

I particularly liked this C2.

We were of course supporting the Corvette Racing team. They ran two cars, number 73 and 74. Here is the 73 car in action.

Here is the 74 car, this is our favourite of the Corvette Racing cars as we like Oliver Gavin, one of the drivers of this car.

Here are the Corvette Racing pits. One of the cars came in as we were there, I didn’t get any pictures though unfortunately.

Here is a picture of me with Ron Fellows (in the dark glasses) a famous corvette racing driver.

The raised viewing area was very busy most of the time, but you could usually see some of the action. I wish you could get one of these corvette shirts in my size!

Unfortunately both Corvette Racing cars had a bad time during the night, but they were still on the track as the sun was coming up on Sunday.

Here is another picture of one of the corvettes

This is the Corvette Racing area in the paddock.

In the end it wasn’t a very good result for Corvette Racing, finishing 5th and 6th in their class, but we still had good fun at the Corvette Corral. Larbre competition raced last years old Corvettes and after a very close race managed to win their class for the second year running so that was at least something to celebrate.