Le Mans 3rd &4th May

[.Bishbash.]

A long shot, but any of you chaps going to Le Mans?

I will be there on the R1 ripping it up!

Let us know
____________________
Current bike - GSX-R1000 k8

[.Bishbash.]

Track day complete at Le Mans, so here is a little write up;

The overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Le Harvre docked at 8ish so just a nice relaxing drive down with the Mrs(Bellaboo) to arrive just after midday. drove up to the circuit via Arnage and Mullsanne on the roads used for the 24 hours. Why can't all roads be surfaced like this?

We had a little scout round the track and there was a Triumph trackday so we hung around for an hour and watched. the French sure love their Triples.

We tried to find a camp site but had no luck as we rode around in circles following stupid yellow signs that lead nowhere, we finally thought sod it and paid for a hotel for the night. The following day I woke up to rain but thankfully it stopped early and was then was glorious for the 2 days. We drove up to the circuit for 8 o'clock for sign on. Unloaded and set up the R1 for track.

At the briefing we were told they would be running just two groups as the numbers booked on was low. I counted just 36 bikes in the garages, so 20 mins on 20 mins off = loads of quality track time:D

I managed to blagg a lift for the Mrs(Bellaboo) in the safety car for the sighting laps. The driver set off and. On the second lap he turned to Bellaboo, narrowed his moody French eyes and said " dis Audi RS5 V10 is a fantastic car" before hammering it! By the time they got back to the pit lane one of the riders had managed to miss that he pitted and had to go round again.

Anyways, The circuit is super smooth, wide, with lots of run off everywhere. Lots of hard accelerating and braking. Some really nice constant radius turns and a couple of tricky chicanes. The start finish straight is awesome with massive grandstands towering either side of you. The dunlop curve (turn 1) really is a mans corner for men! I always backed off way to early as you can carry some serious speed into it.

Plenty of sessions with next to no traffic meant I could work on my throttle control and lines. At times it seemed like I was the only one on track with no one to pass or be passed by. The day passed without incident until late in the afternoon when I was following an r6, exiting the hairpin before the start finish straight where the fella was spat off, his bike riding itself until it hit the wall snapping a fork leg and totalling the front end. Was happy to see him quickly up on his feet and in relatively good spirits considering.

The second morning was even quieter with a few lads having a bit of a session the night before and sitting out the first few sessions. On one stint I did not see a single bike, I reckon there was only 5 or 6 of us out. Was like having a GP circuit all to myself. I stayed till end only missing 2 sessions. The last session it was only myself and another chap literally poodling it round as I managed to lap him. Was SO nice.

Met some sound people and everyone seemed to be having a really good time.

The highlight of everyones trip was a little ginger kid spanking everyone round the track, yes that's right the one and only Bradley Smith was there scything through traffic like they were standing still.

Will probably do it again as it's such an awesome track. But will need to plan the trip down better as it cost a bit to much the way I did it.


____________________
Current bike - GSX-R1000 k8

[Ben.]

Was thinking of doing this myself, how much did it cost to do minus the track day price and the cost of tyres.
____________________
follow my racing season
Race bike - R6
Road bike - sv650

[.Bishbash.]

Well Le Mans is a little different as you need to get your bike there yourself, so it cost me;

Van hire for 5 days £240
Ferry £120
Euro insurance for van £20
Fuel was £100 for the van there and back

Focus Events require you to have a EHIC card and track insurance, that insurance was for personal injury only, so it was £40.

Fuel for track use was another £140

Then accommodation and food on top of that, we camped and took our own food, so est of £80

So total was £740 minus track and tyres!

There's probably a cheaper way of doing it, but it was my first go at it, so no doubt I would get it a bit wrong.

Saying that, the Spanish ones are slightly more expensive to buy from FE, but they ship your bike over, accommodation included. All you have to do is flights/transfers/food/fuel for bike. So they would work out cheaper.


____________________
Current bike - GSX-R1000 k8

[Codemonkey]

FWIW, if you go again, there's a decent camp site in Eccomoy. Nice clean toilet/shower block and nice & quiet usually (unless a couple of the members of your group have pulled the waitresses from the local restaurant in the village and spent half the night nailing them, boy do they scream!!) and not that far from the track. Used to stay there when I went for the 24 hours race. There's also a supermarket a few mins walk away which is handy.