Le Mans 2006

The Mallock Club at Le Mans

22 Club members complete with motor-homes, caravans and tents took advantage of the offer of RML hospitality space and made their way to Le Mans this week to support Ray Mallock's team in the famous Le Mans 24hrs. race.
The advantage of a spacious fenced members area soon became apparent as the camping contingent of a record crowd of 235,000 crammed into the public areas. Pete Burnham was moved to reflect on his early racing days at Brooklands by quoting 'the right crowd and not too crowded'.

The site was inside the circuit with a good view of the cars coming out of the Porsche Curves. Cliff and Anne Robertson provided some early entertainment with a wonderful competition called 'put up the caravan awning'. Several members took part in this marathon event that lasted most of the afternoon.

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Now these are the side poles	or perhaps the top braces

no....definitely the side poles	there you are...perffic!!!

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Some came well prepared with hot showers,.....	.....fridge freezers and air conditioning.

.........whilst others took a more modest approach to accommodation.

On Friday evening we attended a 'Mallock Club Dinner' at the famous Hotel de France in Chartre sur le Loir where the winning 1959 Aston Martin team stayed and garaged their cars. Not much seemed to have changed in nearly 50 years. The evening sun beamed down on the old village square where a few old 'Bentley' types, complete with their wonderful cars, mingled with the locals outside the hotel. Inside, a glimpse of a well known former formula one star staying at the hotel in Le Mans week and a staff straight from the cast of 'Ello, Ello'. Old waiters with aprons down below their knees and waitresses who probably served the Aston team in 1959.

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The company was great and the food and wine were wonderful.

	look out Jim, she's setting fire to your prawns!!

On Saturday we had an official welcome from the RML team with a visit to the pit followed by tea and cakes in the hospitality suite. Michael Mallock gave a humorous and detailed presentation of the Lola/MG in the garage and happily answered our questions while the pit crew were calmly fitting a new engine, gearbox and running gear between qualifying and the race. (as we do in K sports and Classics at most meetings!)

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During the race, Russ Leaviss and Morgan Burgess managed to get to every viewing point around the circuit on their cycles in 6 hours. Hazel and Pete Burnham watched until dawn and Martin managed get inside the RML pit at 7am on Sunday morning with a phoney 'all areas' pass constructed from his ticket and disabled badge.
The sophistication of our catering is worthy of note:-

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Four kinds of marmalade for our morning toast and a really special Pimms jug (now where have I seen that before Adrian?)
I won't attempt to report on the race as this has been done by the professionals. The result was the best we could have wished for, first in LMP2 and eighth overall. This means an automatic entry next year so let's hope we can do it all again.
On a personal note I would like to thank the whole Mallock Club group for contributing to a splendid week-end.
My special thanks to Hazel for her generous catering, Pete for sharing the decisions, Catherine for sorting out the finances at the restaurant and for the site, Russ Leaviss and Adrian Lester for giving up the pleasure of drinking to drive us to the restaurant and Jim Lindley for encouraging and helping me to get around the circuit.
Roll on June 2007!!!
Martin

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Ray and victorious RML team on the Podium	RML Team celebrating their class win