Tony.
| First of all I would like to say a big hello to Jason's
parents who sent in this pic of themselves scanning the crowd at Le Mans in the hope of
spotting him.. Tony. |
|
As I wasn't there in person I've collected together assorted ramblings from others involved..
'Suzie' 'Bumble' |
 |
 |
'Glenys' I've just been woken up (having pulled a sicky due to nausea). It was immigration. Asking about Jason. Again. I may have to kill him. OTOH, we now know he's got back to Waterloo
|
 Ed: For those who don't know him the gentleman with cap in the foreground is Fredrik 'Doc' Knutsen.. LeMans class winning entrant 2003. |
'Suzie' Actually, when I dropped him I warned him he'd get by with Anglais around Paris only if he added some content to his sentences other than "like" "ummm" "whoa" "i guess" "hmm" and "yeah". Imagine facing being an immigration officer.... Imm: So, Mr Vissers, are you here for long? Jason: Ummm, like, I guess, whoa, ummm, yeah, whoa. Imm: Was that a yes? Jason: Like, ummm, whoa, ummm, like, whoa. Imm: Sorry, what? Jason: Whoa, sen-sing hos-til-ity, <flicks hair> whoa, umm, yeah, whoa. Imm: OK then, can you tell me where you'll be staying? Jason: It's like, umm, whoa, with, I guess, yeah, Glenys, umm, whoa, yeah. I mean, come on. You gotta give them credit for getting the phone number out of him only hours after he'd arrived. The Gestapo would have been proud. >OTOH, we now know he's got back to Waterloo. A not inconsiderable achievement. Hmmm.... only London and the Chiltern Hills to negotiate, I suppose. What could possibly go wrong? |
| 'Jason' Back! Whooo! Ah.. so much has happened in the course of my Le Mans adventure.. where to start? OK, first off, it was super awesome to finally meet up with so many legendary RASF1ers: Suzie, Doc, Hans V, DC.. I'm sure I'm forgetting people here, as my thirsty mind has been overloaded with rich and wet experiences. And extra special thanks to Suzie for the ride, whirlwind Paris tour, side trip to Chartres, keeping me alive on the French roads, sandwiches and everything else; Doc for the wonderful hospitality, shelter, meals, and motorsport anecdotes, and, lest I forget, Tony for the ride to Silverstone on Thursday! Oh, and Glenys for getting me out of my latest contre-temps with the folks at immigration. I'm not sure how to use "contre-temps" properly. Ahh! With several e-mail reports to send, as well as several threads to catch up on here, I'm overwhelmed with on-line duties. Main points: - Suzie: Loved the donuts! And I will forever be grateful for your ability to get us into the pit lane without pit passes. I won't soon forget standing on the Le Mans pit wall and taking pictures of the Audis from mere feet away! - Evidently, a sweatshirt jacket does not constitute wet-weather gear. How was I to know? I'm from California! - What a way to experience my first car race.. I never expected to see half the field pass by with major damage 15 minutes into a 24 hour race! Them rainstorms was nasty. - A group of us walked along the circuit and eventually found a great vantage point looking down on a quick corner somewhere between Arnage and the Porsche curves. Magic! The track was clearly still slippery, and to watch the drivers attempt to navigate the corner gave me a real visual impression of just what a tricky and perilous pursuit this is. A Panoz understeered off exiting the corner and very nearly slammed the barriers at high speed right in front of me. Terrifying! - I stayed in a cheap Paris hotel all on my own! I'm such a big competant adultish boy. Interesting elevator they had. - Ancient cathedrals are really neato. - I need to go buy an actual manual type razor from the store, because my electric razor cannot deal with my thick (well, intermittently thick, anyway) macho stubble. - My jacket is *still* wet.. - Forza Cheek Racing!! - I'm still tired. - Racing is awesome. - I love you all! - :-) - ..yes, that's right.. just - .. - An observation: Everywhere I go, people over here are sending people text messages on their cellular phones! Is this some new thing I missed out on whilst sitting around the house in Santee? What's the deal? I like the idea. Phone communication intimidates me, but text communication, being more consciously controllable than communication via voice, (I mean, the voice reveals so much about oneself that one is uncomfortable with, and the realization of this makes voice communication more of an effort in trying to control for this than in communicating the intended message, while through text, one can present oneself in an honest manner, but on one's own terms.. what am I trying to say here? Nevermind) is fun. - Boo-yah. |
'Doc Fredrik B.Knutsen' Good to see everybody, and sorry about the river that was inside of the big tent that was supposed to accomodate everybody! Obviously, the wind and the rain literally put a damper on everybody's enjoyment of this French affair, 'twas. I feel, especially 'ard on the newbies who had every right to expect a lot. Hopefully, you lot will not have been scared off and we'll see you back in the future. Friday night dinner was, I hope, reasonably representative although yours truly was kept busy not only with cooking for 17 guests and keeping everybody's glass topped up, but also by a couple of Norwegian journalists who have done a feature on Cheek Racing Cars and our endeavours to field our car at Le Mans eventually. Thanks to everybody who turned up! Forza sports-prototypes! Forza ACO! Doc  Remember those unopened bottles on the table two or three pictures back ? Well I have a suspicion that they didn't stay that way for long..
|