Eurotrip 2011: The Aftermath

As the 24 Hours of Le Mans race actually happened and then the rest of my time in Europe passed, the urgency of updating the blog took a backseat in contrast. A few random thoughts:

***

Le Mans was another epic race. There's no way of putting into comparison how close only 13.5 seconds separated first and second place overall after 24 HOURS. After writing off two of its cars, one because of driver error (IMO) and one where traffic played an unfortunate role, to see Audi topple four Peugeots with arguably its least heralded lineup of Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler was a fantastic effort.

Me being the racing nerd I am, I've known of Lotterer's career for almost 10 years beginning when he made a one-off Champ Car start in Mexico City in 2002. The German never got a proper F1 chance, although he was Jaguar's reserve driver after Tomas Scheckter got canned for "kerb-crawling." Lotterer and Treluyer have both raced in Japan most of their careers and are good friends, which gives them great chemistry that translates well to endurance racing.

My first Le Mans in 2009, each of them stuck out to me for different reasons. Lotterer starred in a customer Audi R10 TDI driving as one of two drivers in his race debut (their third was ruled out after he injured himself on the way to the grid). Treluyer, meanwhile, wrote off a customer Peugeot 908 for Henri Pescarolo, and undoubtedly redeemed himself with this performance.

An additional shout-out to Tommy Milner, who drove the race of his life along with Antonio Garcia and Olivier Beretta to avenge the bitter disappointment of 2010 for Corvette Racing. The team fell a lap down after an unscheduled pit stop about nine hours in (picture), and fought to recover.

***

London is AWESOME. Doing the usual touristy attractions, seeing Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and going on both a bus tour and boat cruise provided enough of a venue to witness this majestic city. It's a lot like New York, it's bustling and an international melting pot hub, where you get a mix of nationalities, ethnicities and languages all flowing.

They "get" two things really well: fashion and public transportation. Rarely did I see anyone sloppily dressed, all were in high fashion and good shape as well. Plus, whenever my dad and I needed to catch a "tube" (subway) or bus, if we missed one, another came within 10-15 minutes on the dot.

It's upscale and historic without being arrogant, and the Brits were unfailingly nice whenever we had a question. Getting to see such sites the second day ranging from the juice bar/health spa where my cousin works as a chef to Abbey Road and various English pubs highlighted the trip.

I'd go back in a heartbeat.

***

France was weird to return to for me, because of what had happened to my dad the previous week and also because I didn't have that same "first time" feeling of going there as I did in 2009. The important thing was my dad loved it, and was really struck by seeing the Eiffel Tower in person.

Returning to the U.S., actually the first thing I noticed was how much more obesity there is, and the lack of concern for outward appearance. I never thought of it that way before, but both really stuck out to me.

***

Link time! Following the Milwaukee IndyCar race, I didn't offer the usual race report type story but instead went to one of my journalist/blogger colleagues to ask her if it was the right place for a guest blog. The content was good, although I was severely short on the vulgarities required that usually make up a post on Meesh's site ;-) Here's the link.

My mom asked to read everything I did in Le Mans, and to be honest, I don't remember much of what I did either! Anyway, a recap of my Motorsport.com articles is below:

-GTE Final Race Report

-Robertsons Make Le Mans Debut

-Sorting out the "Alphabet Soup"

-DeltaWing comes to Le Mans

-A Look at the New GT Cars

-Level 5 Team Preview

-Scrutineering Wrap-Up

-Scrutineering before Audi, Peugeot

-Michael Waltrip Meets France

Articles I wrote in conjunction with my colleague Tom Haapanen, where he did LMP coverage and I did GTE:

-Two-hour, Six-hour, 12-hour, 20-hour race updates

-Provisional and Final Qualifying

Out for now, cheers.

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was your night?"

This blog’s headline is posted as such for good merit and I will explain why in a few words. I don’t think the headline needs an explanation — at least I would hope not.

To call today a roller coaster is a drastic understatement. I could not have envisioned it shaking out as it did.

I lost an hour this morning between various directional and shopping delays, and while frustrated in the moment, it was thanks to some calming philosophy from my friend and colleague Paul Ryan (no, not the Wisconsin Congressman) for some necessary perspective. Little did I figure how much I would need it later in the day.

With a few blog posts and photo galleries put online on the Alley blog and a major story complete breaking down the acronyms at Le Mans for Motorsport.com, I headed out to the pits about 2 p.m. for the day’s pit walk. Fun times and a lot of good pics which I will upload later.

I made the decision to really soak up the rest of the day with my dad, without worrying about work. Too much of this week has been spent in the media center with my nose to the grindstone that I hate to admit I haven’t been able to enjoy too much of it, so that was the plan for the day.

The parade was in Plaza Jacobins in downtown Le Mans, which I have been to now several times but navigating with a lot of traffic in my dad’s rental car was always going to be a challenge.

When entering a roundabout about 2 or 3 miles out, it all went completely wrong. We merged into the lane but unfortunately lost sight of another car stopped in the right lane going the opposite direction, and rammed right into the car’s rear bumper. We weren’t toast but it was a mess of a time trying to get it all sorted from there. Suffice to say more, other than it was not a good situation.

About an hour later we valiantly fought onward in the attempt to find a parking space for the parade. Oddly that wasn’t the worst part. When in the scrum to get on a tram, my dad was the unfortunate victim of a pick-pocket on his backpack. His camera was stolen. It became a worse situation because it was quick, stealthy and neither one of us noticed.

We held out hope it fell out in the rental car, but alas, this was not the case. We got confirmation when we returned from dinner, which in and of itself nearly made up for the two major faux pas of the day.

Culture is an interesting one here — you can plan for it and suddenly after three hours eating, talking and drinking at dinner you find you have met new friends. That overcomes the angst and frustration of the downsides. In this case, someone I had met briefly at scrutineering stopped by, and my dad and I met some French fans who spoke very good English and did everything they could to improve the mood.

Put simply it was a day where things just went wrong more often than usual. I could say more but it just brings up greater frustration. At least no-one was hurt from the proceedings.

A more pleasant note to end this on is that this relative day of frustration occurred on my grandparents’ 72^nd wedding anniversary, June 10, 1939.

I guess I’ll always remember June 10, 2011 in that vain as well, if not for all the wrong reasons. But to quote the two mottos of the trip: in France, it’s not supposed to make sense, it just is, and secondly, it could be worse.

Off to sleep and get more than four hours before race day tomorrow … it’s going to be tiring but fun. Later.

Whirlwind Day, Week So Far

Because I’ve been doing so much writing for Motorsport.com and additionally a decent amount on the MichelinAlley.com blog, I’ve been rather knackered when it comes to updating the personal blog (the British I’ve met and/or reacquainted with here are wearing off on me).

There have been four monumentally cool moments since I blogged last. First, on Tuesday night, the track shut down in the evening to view Steve McQueen’s “Le Mans” on the circuit’s front straight, with chairs set out for the length of it. Seeing the start of this movie on the front straight can only be described as epic.

On Thursday, following the joint ACO/FIA press conference whereby the new World Endurance Championship was confirmed, I got to tour the Le Mans museum for a second time and it is just as worth it.

My dad arrived this evening as well—and getting the chance to see him here when he has never previously been to Europe, much less this race, is a personal highlight that will be difficult to eclipse.

Finally, there was the Mazda rotary engine starting up in advance of it running on track 20 years after winning here overall. I didn’t see Patrick Dempsey when he arrived but did see Johnny Herbert, who will run the car for a demonstration run on Saturday before the race.

There have been so many more highlights — even had run-ins with Ben Collins, the former “Stig” on “Top Gear,” along with NASCAR star and commentator Michael Waltrip in the paddock. Today’s been a heavily-packed news day so much so it has been difficult to keep up with everything.

And that didn’t even include the final two hours of qualifying yet! It’s already gone way too fast.

Out for now, cheers.

Attempting to Avoid Puns About Anthony Weiner

Considering I just wrote more than 1,000 words for a story to go online later this morning (1:45 Tuesday a.m. as I am posting this), I guess, I really don’t have much new to add here.

Scrutineering today went off without a hitch or any rain interruptions to speak of, and the crowd turnout looked sizeably bigger than yesterday (left). That's saying something when today is a Monday and a work day, even if the heavy hitters made their appearances today. Lunch was probably the best meal of the trip so far, an excellent fresh baguette with ham and cheese for only 3 Euros. That is probably the best food image to sum up the spirit of Le Mans and scrutineering.

Apparently the other news of the day back in the U.S. is that disgraced U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, whose last name is a running joke to begin with, admitted he indeed sent a scandalous pick of well … yeah. Again, the name says more than I need to here.

This proves stupid knows no boundaries and when your last name is Weiner, even you can commit a boner. I should stop before I make too many other additional double entendres.

Scrutineering Day One

We’re one day into the week at Le Mans. A needed nine hours of sleep helped alleviate some of the drowsiness I felt on Saturday and scrutineering got the juices flowing of adrenaline. It’s the first sign Le Mans race week is well and truly underway.

Much like 2009 when I was here for the first time, there was one star greater than any driver or team — the rain. Again, periods of sun and clouds interrupted the deluge from the heavens. I would have thought this level of rain would occur when I went through the U.K. to get to France, not actually in France after the locals have said it hasn’t rained that hard in two months.

Two things I take away from today:

-The adoration of the locals. Michael Waltrip is the big star from a North American and media perspective, but for the locals, it seemed as though Henri Pescarolo nor David Hallyday (right) could go anywhere without being mobbed. The pair who fly the “tricolor” are legendary for different reasons. Pescarolo, who drove F1 in the 1960s, has been a local icon as a team owner and driver the past 30-odd years.

Nothing special to the rest of us, but the French are infatuated with the man. After a year’s absence, Pescarolo is back in 2011 with a pseudo-new team, the renamed Pescarolo Team, instead of Pescarolo Sport. Secondly, Hallyday is the son of French singer Johnny Hallyday, who I learned today from Daily SportsCar’s Graham Goodwin is the French Elvis if you will, and the comparable example is Priscilla Presley in the U.S. Wonder what she would do behind the wheel of one of those prototypes …

-The dedication of the locals. Despite the rain, they were utterly devoted to coming out. So many people had their rain gear, their umbrellas and their cameras—just clamoring to even get a glimpse of their favorite car. And mind you, this was the short day, before the two major heavy hitters come on Monday, Audi and Peugeot. Tomorrow promises to be another packed day for the fans in downtown Le Mans.

It’s pushing 12:30 a.m. here local time, now Monday morning, so will have more to post later including links to stories. Today I have a blog featuring Waltrip running on Motorsport.com which is not yet live, and have also posted Rick Dole’s first batch of images from scrutineering on the MichelinAlley.com blog site.

Out for now, cheers.

All told, it could have been worse

I wrote this at 5:24 p.m. Le Mans time, on Saturday afternoon, 6/4. Just posting now as this is the first time I've had Internet access.

To expect perfection on what was my first ever solo international flight was surely a bit naïve and overly optimistic. Yet, when all was said and done, the hardest part of the travel day was actually getting out of the Paris airport several hours later than anticipated, by my own lack of planning.

I guess it could have been worse.

Here’s how it went down. You can plan for almost anything in making sure you have the right amount of clothes and necessary items, electric converters, things of that sort. What you can’t plan for, however, is when an hour before you’re supposed to board after everything had gone swimmingly to that point, a gate agent reads this unfortunate message:

“Attention passengers of the flight to Paris. We are experiencing some technical issues with your plane, and this flight is now canceled. We will make every effort to accommodate you.”

Great, I thought. As, I’m guessing the other 200-plus passengers did that were equally screwed.

Considering my last international trip back to the U.S. was a mess, even as I can laugh about it now, I have to thank that experience for keeping me level-headed when immediately I wanted to resort to weaving a tapestry of expletives.

So the announcement comes. Rather than panic, I just joined the queue in line, after hurriedly packing up my laptop and other equipment I had been working on. Some dropped out, some were scurried to another gate, and finally my turn comes up after about 20 people and 30 minutes.

The couple in front of me has been booked on a flight that will leave the same time out of Chicago, and mind you, I’d already taken a bus down from Milwaukee. So I’m already a bit flustered. They’re off to Manchester, U.K., and I figure this is a reasonable alternative and shouldn’t get me into Paris too much later.

Frantically, the gate agents wondered if it was possible for me to fit. I hadn’t checked any bags, so that wasn’t an issue, but finding a seat was. Luckily, I made it into the last seat on the plane. Ordinarily I’d be groaning at the thought of middle seat purgatory in the third-to-last row, but alas, I was just happy to make the flight.

The American Airlines plane, however, was substandard for an international flight. You pick up on the little things like how it’s one aisle instead of two, the TVs are centered leaving the customers one option only for the crappy movie(s) de jour, and they serve a dinner that includes a salad when they know there has been a nasty E. Coli outbreak in northern Germany.

I passed on the salad. And the movies. Getting out of the aisle proved especially challenging with an aisle seat hog who was bobbing his head all over the place as he slept, so it was almost if I needed to perform a high-wire trapeze act to get to the restroom.

We arrive in Manchester at roughly quarter of 8 a.m. local time. The connecting flight to Paris leaves at 9:40.

The gates in European airports are much different in that you come in and go through a series of hallways before actually getting to the terminal. It’s not like the U.S. where you get off at Gate X, where the next batch of chaps is ready to board once you’re off. Sometimes it takes a good while, you try to follow the signs and eventually you end up where you’re supposed to, even if it takes precious time. Keep that bit in mind for later.

At Manchester, “the connecting four” (the couple in front of me and another girl meeting her boyfriend in Paris) got on a shuttle bus that brought us from the gate to another terminal, where we then had to get checked in to Paris. Our Air France flight isn’t on the board, so the concierge has to call an Air France agent. Once that was sorted and we went through security again — but not customs — it was nearly a 10-minute walk all the way around to a gate roughly where we started.

I could gripe about that and how we were only 25 minutes early to our departing flight, but honestly the people at Manchester couldn’t have been nicer and more helpful. Once you give the Brits a pass on their teeth, you realize they might be some of the earnest and caring people internationally. It was agony at the time but this went rather smoothly. After Le Mans, I couldn’t be more excited to return to the U.K. in a proper fashion with a few days in London.

The flight to Paris went rather quick thanks to striking up conversations with both a fellow Le Mans-goer and lovely young British girl, I’d guess college age, (although I’m an idiot for not getting a name. Bloody idiot.).

Sorry, mind wandered there.

So I arrive in Paris. My previous trip in was on United, through terminal one, and with two other people. This was solely me, on Air France, in terminal 2E. On the surface you would think it would be easy to get from terminal 2E to the connecting ones, 2A, B, C or D.

I could not have been more mistaken.

A myriad of wrong turns, dead ends and missteps turned what should have been a five or 10-minute meeting with my connection, who had been gracious enough to wait for my delayed flight in the first place, into a bloody hour.

This was just my bad. A mix of being flustered, tired and causing someone else to wait is not a good combination.

All things considered, it could have been worse, had I not got on the early flight to Manchester. From here, it’s set to rock and roll with scrutineering Sunday and Monday in downtown Le Mans and the rest of the week ahead.

Out for now, cheers.