Welcome to the "Your First Time at Le Mans" story series.
I decided to break this huge week+ long experience into smaller sized and self-contained stories you can read either in a sequence or in the order you prefer.
I hope you enjoy the stories as much as I did writing them!
Feel free to reply if you have any feedback, or if you had similar experiences and want to share. I read and get back to all replies.
If you really liked the article, it would be amazing for you to share with others who might also enjoy it!
Without further ado, today's story is:
Chapter 3: Why go a week early?
The 24 Hours of Le Mans race is from Saturday at 16:00 local, to Sunday at 16:00, of course.
But we arrived at Le Mans the previous Monday.
Why, I hear you ask? Well, I also didn't know when I signed up for it, but now I do.
They say that "going the whole week is the way" to experience Le Mans.
Of course you can go less days, or even just for the race. And you'll have a fantastic time.
But you will miss some things, and experience some others in a worse way.
What you can miss if you go later
There are at least 3 things you might miss if you go later in the week, and there may be more, but these are my highlights.
Driving on the Mulsanne in 24h vibes
I described my experience of sending it on the Mulsanne with my own car in Chapter 2. Check it here if you haven't read it yet.
Unless you stay after the event, when they re-open it, you can not drive on it from Tuesday to Sunday, as it close it off for the event.
The main difference if you do it later is that you experience it as a regular road and not with the Le Mans flair.
Pit walk, pit stop challenge and walking the start line
This happened on Tuesday. The pit lane was open to everyone and you could go there, meet the teams, see lots of the cars very, very close.
You could even get into the track and sign the start line with a marker as I did!
There was also a "Pit Stop Challenge" where the teams competed to see which was the fastest in a pretend pit stop. They got trophies too.
Practices, qualifying and other races
I will detail more of these races later, but if you go early in the week, you can get access to free practices and qualifying runs.
The best thing about these is that if you want to see cars more closely, or even take pictures, this will be basically "the same experience" than during race day, but better.
Photo of me taken by my friend Chris.
The reason? Less people around, more places open to more people (that get restricted later during race days to people who paid more than you).
It's a great chance to see the action front and center and preparing yourself for the race.
What you'll experience worse if you go later
On top of missing things, there are some things that will be a worse experience the later you arrive.
Not queuing
I've been immediately admitted to the Le Mans museum (more on it later) on Wednesday.
When I saw the queue to enter on Saturday and Sunday, there were constantly between 50 and 100 people trying to go in.
The museum has a cap for maximum people to be inside at the same time. So if people don't go out, you can't go in.
And they can stay in as long as they want, so you never know when you'll get your spot.
Less people shopping
Also in merch shops and the like.
The Smyths/Hot Wheels shop, the official Le Mans stores, even the food stalls. Absolutely everything was properly packed during the race, and it's something you have to deal with.
Of course, you have to eat, and it doesn't matter how early in the week you arrived, but if you were able to do all your other purchases, wandering and museum visiting before, you'll save a ton of time during race days.
Then you can just enjoy the race instead of waiting in lines.
Photo of me taken by my friend Chris.
This is the end of "Chapter 3: Why go a week early?". Stay tuned for "Chapter 4: Your First Time Camping?" in the upcoming days where we'll go over things like:
- Expectations vs. reality from your first time camping
- How campsites work at Le Mans
- What kind of distances you'll need to cover
- The status and availability of facilities while there
See you there?
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If you haven't yet, you can read previous chapters here:
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