 I've tried to collect my thoughts and to reflect on this weekend's Petit Le Mans experience. One thing comes to mind: Would've, should've, and could've. In other words after six years of attending the event I would've expected at least one rainy race day. What should've been an been an excellent race in both wet and dry turned out to be a half complete event that met neither the mandatory 10 hours or 1,000 mile mark. It leaves me thinking what could've been had the race been scheduled a week later as in years past.
But I'm not here to gripe or complain. After reading several accounts I believe the race drivers and stewards made the right decision NOT to restart the race. I wish however, that they would have at least maintained the illusion of an endurance event, rain or shine, by forcing the cars to continue circulation once the circuit began drying around the time they called the race. At the very least they could have completed 10 hours at 40mph.
That said the entire experience left me looking back at my own personal experiences at Petit. 2004 marked the start of my adventure when my dad and I trekked down to the track on Friday night with my brand new scanner, a pack of hotdogs and a case of Miller Lite. We were largely unprepared for the event but managed to find food from the lone vendor atop the hill near the paddock. More importantly we were largely unprepared for the group of Bulldogs fans who camped, with keg, nearby that night. Sometime around 2am I told them that I didn't care if they drank all night as long as they didn't fall on my tent while doing keg stands. Not surprisingly we didn't see much of those boys the next day.
2005 marked the first serious effort at Road Atlanta. I was accompanied by several more family members and my two best friends on what would become "The Woodman Experience". Following the race, sometime around 2am (notice a trend here?) an PLM driver named Bob Woodman showed up, with golf cart and official looking trophy, in our campsite. Apparently he was celebrating a podium finish for a small underdog team and was out of beer. We gladly gave him what we had and listened to many stories. It was a rough ride home but well worth the "for the fans" moment.
2006 was the year we got kicked out of "Family Camping", but not like you'd think. It seems that everyone with an RV had decided that the hill near turn 2-3 was a great place to set up camp and we were quickly booted out in favor of the unmarked hill near turn 10. It was the first year of the 'Vette, which my sister saved long and hard for. She and my dad drove down Wednesday night to make SURE they were registered for the Corvette Coral parade lap.
2007 was a banner year for the race, the fans and my personal photo collection. I made it down early enough to snag several great photos shortly before practice as the cars drove out to the pits. It was also the first time I sat on the grandstands at the start-finish line where I watched the Audis and Porches battle for overall supremacy in the final hours of the race.
2008 was what I still believe was a high water mark for car count and quality. While the finish wasn't as exciting as in '07 it was still a damn good race. Too bad a few rowdy members of our group essentially partied too hardy. It was also my first full four day experience and I was so exhausted by race day that I really couldn't enjoy it to the fullest.
Which leads me to 2009. I was hoping for an Audi / Peugeot rematch and everything looked that way until late Saturday. The forecast called for heavy showers around 6 or 7 pm, unfortunately those showers arrived early and put a damper on the entire event. It didn't just stop action on the track, after only an hour under rain delay I made my way to vendor village only to find that many of the vendors had closed up shop. Still I made off with some great steals over at the official Road Atlanta tent including some clearance items for the kids and several Sebring items which found their way to northern Georgia.
In retrospect the experience of Petit Le Mans for this year will be less about the race and more about the deluge. The Georgia clay of Road Atlanta was so saturated that it squished under foot. While the Corvette coral was dirty and slick, the Porsche Platz was a mud hole. Never before have I seen so many expensive cars sitting in such a slurry of red earth. The hills were alive with the sounds of drunk and sober alike slipping and sliding and many a pop-up canopy gave way under the weight of the downpour. As I stood atop the hill at turn 10, surveying the damage I wondered to myself: "Is this not the Woodstock of car enthusiasts?" |
