Formula 1 And Floods! – My Story of Le Mans 2018

In the first edition of Motorsport Radio’s Memorable Moments, where our writers open up about weekends close their heart, we explore a rather British experience on the continent. Sportscar journalist Andy Lloyd shares the lessons he learned from the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, which he’ll remember for burst banks, Button and emergency BnB’s. 

I have been going to Le Mans since 1998 and every year provides memories, stories and situations that you reminisce and laugh about. 2018, however, was a memorable year in many ways and one from which the stories are, from my perspective, worth telling.

To set the scene, 2018 was going to be my 21^st year at the great race. Accompanying me was my regular motorsport partner-in-crime Roger. An expert motorsport photographer, this was to be Roger’s ninth year at Le Mans.

Roger and I go way back. We met at a company we both worked for in 1995 and became friends through a mutual love of motorsport. We had attended various events together over the years and in 2010 I persuaded him to make the Le Mans journey. Once bitten with the endurance racing bug, Roger became as enthusiastic about the Circuit de La Sarthe as I am, and we planned bigger and better trips with every passing year. As I developed my website and writing abilities, Roger worked on his photography skills and together we made our annual trips to the Pays de La Loire both fun and productive.

Roger sticks by the motto of ‘having the right tool for the job’. As a keen cyclist, he always makes sure his gear is the best. When it came to camping, our first trip to Le Mans saw us use a pair of small tents. The second year we had a large, family tent with separate sleeping and storage areas. By 2012 we were using what we referred to as the ‘Supertent’ – a Quechua which you could assemble in about five minutes – just take it out of the bag, shake it and voilà – instant tent!

The Supertent served us well but a particularly rainy Le Mans in 2016 saw our campsite reduced to a bog. Some tiny holes in the groundsheet meant that we were constantly mopping up. The week was great but it was not our finest camping experience.

For 2017 Roger had something up his sleeve. “I’ve seen this tent on eBay,” he messaged me one day. “It’s quite big but will give us plenty of room.”  “Go ahead,” said I. “What can possibly go wrong.”

Now, I don’t know what you regard as a big tent but, to me, something maybe a bit larger than our previous accommodation would have been more than enough. Room to put a small table up inside would have been a bonus but our needs were simple enough.

It’s now June 2017 and, as we arrive in the town of Montbizot, north of Le Mans, the enormity of Roger’s vision becomes apparent. I should explain that Montbizot is a very pleasant small town to the north of Le Mans. It has some beautiful buildings, a town hall and, most importantly for us, a large hypermarket on the outskirts. Significantly, the Sarthe river runs very close to the town and about 150 metres from our pitch. The relevance of this will be highlighted later.

Anyway… this tent was huge! It took around 90 minutes of hard graft to assemble and it barely fitted into the already generous dimensions of the allotted pitch. If I told you it could probably accommodate about a dozen people and still have room to park a couple of medium-sized cars, I would only be slightly exaggerating.

Once assembled though, the ‘Hypertent’, as we had now christened it, made for the ideal camping experience. I could park my sportscar under the awning, we had more than enough room to put up tables for writing, photo editing, cooking and eating. Storage would be a doddle. The perfect experience, you might say.

2018, however, was a different story.

Fast forward twelve months. The weather over Europe had been unsettled leading up to race week at Le Mans and the forecasts for the week itself showed heavy rain and storms for the Sunday through to Tuesday.

For 2018 we took two cars again, Roger driving down in his Golf and me in a sportscar to give us something to hare around in during the week. The campsite would be the same – Montbizot – and the itinerary similar. We would drive down on the Sunday, put the tent up, drive into town to catch the last few minutes of the afternoon’s scrutineering then have a leisurely dinner while we planned our Monday timetable. As we drove down, we hit pockets of rain but nothing that caused us any major concern. Roger arrived at the campsite first as my driving was/is more comparable with ‘Captain Slow’ than anybody racing that week.

On my arrival, we started unpacking the Hypertent just as the heavens opened. The rain was torrential and we hurriedly sought shelter in our cars until it passed. A second attempt saw us halfway through putting the tent up when the rain started again. This time we had passed the ‘point of no return’ with the tent and continued, despite being soaked to the skin.

An hour later and the tent was up, the cars unpacked and clothes changed. We take a leisurely drive down to Le Mans town centre for a coffee, hoping that we had seen the last of the heavy rain. It’s an unlikely wish as the forecast shows storms hitting Le Mans on the Monday but, on that evening, things were calm, mild and dry and life looked good.

As we opened the tent door on Monday, the immediate outlook looked bleak. Our plan was to drive into the town centre (about a 15-minute journey), park up and then walk to the Place de Republique to catch the day’s scrutineering and driver interviews. As we found our parking spot, the rain started falling and it didn’t let up. I stood in front of the drivers interview stage for an hour and a half recording interviews for use later but the rain continued to fall harder. The term ‘drowned rat’ went nowhere near describing our appearance.

By lunchtime, we’d had enough and headed back to the car and onwards to the campsite to dry out again and regroup. The rest of the day was spent buying supplies and sorting out our campsite. So much for Monday.

Tuesday, as we awoke, looked a lot better. Warm sunshine in the early morning started to dry out our surrounds and it looked as if we were over the worst of the weather. Over a leisurely breakfast, I did some writing and called back to England to discuss a press release that I was working on for a driver. Roger edited photos and we discussed how we would plan the rest of the day. We settled on driving down to the circuit in the Golf to see who might be about in the paddock area for some interviews.

As we left the campsite and headed south for the circuit, we crossed the Sarthe via a small bridge and we both remarked that the river was running very high, due, obviously, to the heavy rain the region had suffered the previous two days.

Arriving at the Circuit de La Sarthe around 11:00, we walked down to the paddock village and, lo and behold, sitting inside the Toyota Gazoo Racing hospitality unit eating his lunch was Fernando Alonso. Deciding that this was an opportunity to good to pass up, we waited outside the unit to see if we could get a quick word with the two-time Formula 1 world champion.

We stood outside the unit for about an hour while Fernando took care of some media commitments inside, but our wait was not in vain. Walking past with three teammates was Jenson Button! I grabbed a voice recorder and asked Jenson if I could trouble him with a couple of questions. He was gracious enough to give me time as he walked back to the garage and I was delighted to have been able to, albeit briefly, interview a Formula One World Champion at my favourite circuit.

It’s now about 3.00pm. Roger and I decide we’ve probably had the best of the day’s weather and make our way back to Montbizot and the campsite. As we approach the campsite, our faces drop. The local fire brigade is on-site, and it quickly becomes clear that the Sarthe has burst its banks and is rapidly flooding the entire area.

Now, Roger and I speak a little French – just enough to buy a beer, pay for petrol and say hallo. The French firemen are clearly very concerned and are trying to tell us that we need to pack up our tent and leave ……. immediately. We didn’t understand what they were saying but urgent pointing at the exit sign gave us a hint that we needed to go. We look at the rising flood water, which, by this stage, is about ten metres from our tent and approaching at a rate of 20cms a minute. We have less than an hour to drop the Hypertent, pack everything down, load it into two cars, one of which is a sportscar with limited storage, and get out.

After deliberately for about five seconds, we immediately start removing the not inconsiderable amount of equipment, food, clothes, bedding and supplies from inside the Hypertent. Two campsite maintenance staff pitched in to help, for which we were very grateful, and a job which would normally have taken close on two hours happened in 45 minutes. As we drive away from the campsite the flood water is now edging onto our pitch.

So, there we are. It’s now about 5.30pm, we haven’t got anywhere to stay, it’s getting late and we’re tired from packing up the tent. We briefly discuss just fueling up the cars and driving back to Calais. However, a voice of reason prevailed and we headed to the hypermarket to regroup and think.

A coffee and a sandwich later, we decide that we must be able to find accommodation somewhere, even if it’s only for the night. The hypermarket has wi-fi so out come the laptops and a quick search of Booking.com reveals a budget hotel in the university area which we head to for the evening. By 9.00pm the Jenson Button interview is written up and published and all is well with the world. Roger searches AirBnB and we book space in a very pleasant house about 15 minutes from the circuit. Crisis averted.

What lessons did we learn from our brush with disaster? Well, had we remained at the circuit into the evening, as we were considering earlier in the afternoon, we would undoubtedly have returned to a flooded tent and possibly a flooded sportscar. THAT would have been a real disaster, and an expensive one. Never ignore a river bursting its bank. Secondly, whenever you travel to the Pays de La Loire in June, be prepared for anything weather-wise. I’ve known it so hot you could barely breath – I’ve also known it sink to seven degrees C at night which is not the time for a lightweight sleeping bag and no thick jumpers.

Thirdly, the internet is THE most useful tool in a tight spot. The ability to find, and book, a budget hotel in less than three minutes undoubtedly saved us from probably sleeping in our cars that night.

For us the incident was something, in retrospect, we can laugh about. For many residents, of course, the flood was a disaster. Many properties in Montbizot and the nearby village of La Guierche sustained considerable damage.

Le Mans – we love you but you can have a sting in your tail when you want.