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:
Articles I wrote in conjunction with my colleague Tom Haapanen, where he did LMP coverage and I did GTE:
Out for now, cheers.
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