[LM24] Le Mans 2025 - 14/15 June 2025 - Who is Going?

[leepurnell]

I just paid my deposit with Lycian events - my first trip since 2001 and travelling solo

Was a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of booking individually and the package option has been a godsend for me! Can’t wait

[Craig]

Hope you're lucky with the weather!

[leepurnell]

Originally Posted by Craig

Hope you're lucky with the weather!

Ha! Wow, that really does feel like a lifetime ago!

[Craig]

It does indeed. I'm still looking for someone who knows where that football club is!

[GT6]

Just had a phone call from the ACO and they offered me houx camping i asked what had happened to Tertre Rouge but he would only say that it was no longer a camping spot as the ACO were reusing it (i think that is code for corporate hospitality). he also stated that new disabled facilities close to the track entry point should be in place for 2025.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by GT6

Just had a phone call from the ACO and they offered me houx camping i asked what had happened to Tertre Rouge but he would only say that it was no longer a camping spot as the ACO were reusing it (i think that is code for corporate hospitality). he also stated that new disabled facilities close to the track entry point should be in place for 2025.

I am hoping to get to Houx but it depends where I fall in the queue. Probably end up with BSJ again. Still, fingers crossed as they say.

[GT6]

Yep Houx is the last of the old campsites left and now the only one left within the GE rea, demand will be high and i suspect the majority will have already been allocated to agents.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by GT6

Yep Houx is the last of the old campsites left and now the only one left within the GE rea, demand will be high and i suspect the majority will have already been allocated to agents.

Even last year Houx tickets were almost as rare as TR and only came up on the resale site once in a blue moon.

[Peter Mallett]

Just received a mail from ACO, showing new fan zones etc.

[GT6]

Well that confirms the end of Tertre Rouge camping, it is now a new Fan Zone

[Peter Mallett]

We looked at the old Karting Pits this year and very dilapidated they are. It seems there is a new spectator bank in this section now.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Just received a mail from ACO, showing new fan zones etc.

There suddenly seem to be a lot of fan zones.... It looks as though the ACO are now clearly moving away from camping as being a prime means of accessing the circuit and watching the race..... They certainly seem to be systematically closing long-standing camping areas and putting them to other (frankly questionable) uses....

[PhilipR]

Could it also be a safety reason? Before 2023 Le Mans attendance used to be around 240-250k but for last couple of year it has been 350K - the extra 100k of people might mean they need to provide more fan areas for safety reasons. Or creting more fan areas might allow them to sell even more tickets due to safety concerns (I am sure financial gains is also another reason)

Whilst I am not into camping, I do hope these camps get moved and not just getting rid of. The campers are a part of the character of the race and would be a shame for these to be pushed out.

[Simmi]

I'm not sure it's actually being reduced - but rather moved out and away from prime areas either in or around the circuit.

We saw quite a few new sites pop up last year out of the blue.

[Mike E]

Yeah, why have a campsite at a prime trackside location anyway? I feel for the TR regulars but one of my constant requests in the fan survey is more trackside access please.

[isynge]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Yeah, why have a campsite at a prime trackside location anyway? I feel for the TR regulars but one of my constant requests in the fan survey is more trackside access please.

It’s an interesting one. More trackside access at Le Mans is a fair request - let’s face it - it’s no Spa or even Silverstone in terms of the ability to walk around the track.
But I think back to 2007 and my first visit - we’d booked a hotel in Tours because it all came together quite late and we didn’t know what we were really doing (everyone does Le Mans wrong first time round right?) and the experience of sitting by the Esses as late afternoon turned into evening, seeing cars in that amazing light, enjoying a beer, and smelling the barbecues all drift over was really evocative. It conjured up the Steve McQueen film, Speed Merchants, and the early 2000s Duke video reviews. It made us come back. It made us become Tertre Rouge regulars, perhaps we were lucky in getting slots there, perhaps it was also planning.
My answer to the question is why are campsites in view of the track is “why aren’t more campsites in view of the track?”. I totally appreciate the practicality argument, the standards of the 2000s, let alone the 1970s, are very different to where we are now, and maybe campers are dinosaurs. There’s also the fair point that crowds are now a lot lot larger than they were not so many years ago, so I’m not going to be one of those that rage about what’s passing.
But what’s passed is sad. I liked being able to gauge what the race was doing by engine notes from around the campfire or while catching some sleep. The handful of times when you got a pitch where you could glimpse brakelights going into Tertre Rouge were amazing. The proximity to everything worked really well. So passes the glory of the world.
Philosophically I didn’t get to see the golden age of Group C, I wasn’t around for the 917 era, and having driven around the old Mugello in a rental Alfa Romeo 10ish years ago I wish I’d experienced that or the Targa Florio. In that light let’s smile about having had well over 10 years in Tertre Rouge, and forgive me (and maybe others) for being those old folk wistfully smiling at what was.
Sic transit gloria mundi.

[clkgtrlm1]

I think we have all been very lucky to have the trackside camping during the last 30 or so years. I have been going since 1996 and have stayed in most of them.
I might be corrected if I am wrong, but in the 60's + 70's there were far fewer campsites with trackside access that we have benefited from recently, until now.
From old maps, it looks like the majority was on Houx, there was one the southern end of the modern pitlane (where Wollek is now), but that may have been for marshalls, one on the outside of Hunardieres between the two modern chicanes and the old TR campsite we have mentioned.
What I suggest we have seen in the movies were actually car parks where fans happened to be camping when the organisation (and safety standards) were not as strict as they are now.
I do miss Maison Blanche and Karting Nord, but Beausejour is perfectly acceptable!
More space for fans to view the cars has to be better than trackside camping.

[Truckosaurus]

It seems a shame to lose TR, the trackside camps are part of the unique charm of LM.

I am not especially enthused by the prospect of it just being another place to buy an overpriced beer and crappy burger.

It might not be too far in the future when you can attend the race and not see a single tent as we've all been moved off into the interior of the circuit.

Let alone people like GT6's mate with mobility issues where the loss of trackside camping might mean the end of their trips.

[GT6]

We will see what happens with the ACO disabled spots in Houx, if they are sensible they will realise that spaces must be close to the track just as disabled parking is but i suspect they will put us close to a disabled toilet and so far from a disabled shower and the track that 2024 will be the last year for kevin. Never to sure the ACO people understand restricted mobility. All the money they spent on the disabled shower block at Tertre Rouge was completely wasted as there will now be no one camping anywhere close.

[bernard b]

Originally Posted by GT6

We will see what happens with the ACO disabled spots in Houx, if they are sensible they will realise that spaces must be close to the track just as disabled parking is but i suspect they will put us close to a disabled toilet and so far from a disabled shower and the track that 2024 will be the last year for kevin. Never to sure the ACO people understand restricted mobility. All the money they spent on the disabled shower block at Tertre Rouge was completely wasted as there will now be no one camping anywhere close.

The campsite is still to be used at the bikes event

Bernard

[whitemr2]

Goodluck everyone, with the Russian Roulette tomorrow.