An
Exhausting 'Day of Rest'
Friday
at Le Mans has traditionally been considered
as a 'day of rest' for teams, media and, most
of all, the drivers in the 24 Hours, but that
tradition seems to have lost substance over
recent years, and Friday has been transformed
into one of the most exhausting, and demanding,
days in the week's schedule.
While
the engineers and mechanics have to complete
ground-up rebuilds of their cars in anticipation
of the next day's race, everyone else is scurrying
around in a frantic panic to keep up with appointments,
business lunches, guest presentations, garage
tours, press conferences, photo opportunities
and every other possible get-together that human
ingenuity can contrive - and the whole pandemonium
is executed within an environment populated
by 250,000 spectators, many wandering around
aimlessly in a drunken haze. At the end of the
day it is, one supposes, all part of the glorious
panoply that is The Le Mans 24 Hours.
The
highlight of the day was the evening Driver
Parade through the city streets. Mike, Tommy
and Chris perched aboard the rear scuttle of
a splendid ivory-white Ford Type A, circa 1930,
owned (and driven) by Monsieur Joseph Molitineau
of St Cyr sur Loire.
A
selection of photographs from the day follows,
starting with an autograph session in the pitlane.
All
photographs by Marcus Potts / CMC
The
Le Mans 2009 gallery can be accessed here