| On Tuesday the 13th of July the Le Mans event, organised by our UK colleagues was due to start. At 7:30am the major part of the Dutch group gathered at the petrol service station at Breukelen to head off for la France. |
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| During the trip we regulary stopped for petrol, drinks and some snacks. |
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| During the trip we had a small technical session when one of the cars overheated. The mechanic which filled the radiator (after replacing it during due to a re-core) was not aware that the thermo-valve was closed so an air bubble was trapped in the engine. When the engine heated up the valve opened and the water flowed into the engine, but the level of coulant was theirfore substancely lowered causing the water pump not circulating any of it. Neadless to say the engine overheated quickly. With some additional coulant (more than 2 gallons) this was cured easily. The rest of the trip the level was monitored carefully. |
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| After meeting up with our friends from the UK a convoy of 9 corvettes cruised through France. |
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| After picking up our English friends near Bologne we quickly continued our journey to our hotel Grand-Cerf in Neufchatel en Bray. |
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| On arrival in Neufchatel the parking place of the hotel soon turned into a small corvette museum. |
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| After driving all day the hotel arranged a lovely, 'french cuisine' diner. |
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| In the middle of nowhere we found this lovely garage jam packed with oldtimers. Even a old c3 (chrome bumper) was in their mids. Also some Mustangs and a 1958 Yellow/Black C1. |
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| At this workshop we also found this nice Riviera once drawn by the same hand as the C2 Sting Ray. |
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| As we still had to travel a lot of miles on French B-roads we quickly headed furture searching for a gas station and a restorant to have some lunch. |
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| After a long but beautiful ride through the French country side we arrived at the hostel le Croix Joreau in Parcay les Pins. Time for unpacking and inspecting our rooms. |
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| Time for a drink and some snacks followed by an excellent French diner. To top it of another nice glass of wine and then... to bed for more adventures to follow the next day! |
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| Since the NCRS judging manuals are developed to judge a production run car it was quite a challange to judge this 1963 proto type. Some parts were simpely missing (with any trace of previous attachment) and some were implemented differently or some additional parts were fitted which didn't make production at all. |
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| Sander's car was also judged during the Le Mans Flight Judging event. This beautiful car, which sadly didn't posses its original engine anymore score on all the other items which were judged nearly a 100% score. This together with the driving miles point was enough to grant Sander a repectible Second Flight! |
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| Also Tom Falconers 1964 convertible was also offered for Flight Judging and scored a respectable Top Flight as well. Tom was very happy since he know posses a Third, Second and Top Flight certificate on the car. Well done Tom! |
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| Also Rob's big block, Daytona Yellow/Black 1969 was subjected to the NCRS judging criteria. Since this car is virtually all original (with exception of some minor parts) it scored very well and together with the milage points it scored a Top Flight as well! One of the two first Top Flights on the European continent!!! |
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| The local newspaper wanted to do a story on our presents in the village so the cars were quickly lined up for a photo-shoot. |
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| The local village petrol station reached its daily turnover by servicing our group in 30 minutes! |
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| Some of took the opportunity to take their car on the actual race circuit of Le Mans. Thirdteen and a half kilometer of pure enjoyment of the holy asphalt. |
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| Audi delivered the pace car for the 2006 edition of the 24 hours of Le Mans and guided us over the circuit. |
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| You have to take care of yourself as well and have some food and beverages since you walk quite a lot during the Le Mans races. These occasions were used to reunite with old friends or make some new once. |
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| On and around the premises of the Le Mans circuit a lot of nice cars could be found. Ferarri's, Lambo's, Porsches, Astons, etc., etc., were everywhere you looked. Underneath a nice detail shot of the new Spyker SUV. |
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| A trained eye recognizes ofcourse the air duct hole of a Aston Martin DB9. |
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| ...and ofcourse this shot needs no clues at all.... |
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| And this should also be familiar for our visiters. |
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| Corvette had some shops on the premises selling their merchandising. Here we found some C6 Z06's on display. |
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| All kind of weirdly dressed people were encountered on the grounds of the circuit. We also found some pits girls during our trip. |
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| A car you won;t encounter that often in the daily traffic is this original GT40, dressed up in a Gulf color scheme. |
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| The day before the race we could walk right next to the pitses which provided a clear overview of the readyness of the cars. Most of them still needed a lot of wrenching and fine tuning. |
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| Some shots of the cars racing the track. Here the Rollcentre Racing team car, nr 22 running in the LMP2 class. Drivers Joao Barbosa , Stuart Moseley and Martin Short. |
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| The Dutch were represented by two Spykers of the Spyker Squadron team. Drivers of nr. 86: Jeroen Bleekemolen, Mike Hezemans and Jonny Kane. |
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| Nr. 66 of the ACEMCO Motorsports team with drivers Terry Borcheller, Johnny Mowlem and Christian Fittipaldi. |
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| Drivers Felipe Ortiz, Jamie Campbell-Water en Beppe Gabiani. |
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| The race also continues during the night since the race last for 24 hours. A perfect opportunity do some night photography. |
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| And here our chairman at the Corvette sign on its way to the pits boxes. |
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| And here a photo of one of the three Corvette's participating in the race. Two C6-R cars of the Corvette Racing team (nr 63 and 64) and a C5-R of a privately runned French team. Showns nr 63 with drivers Ron Fellows, Johnny o'Connell and Massimiliano Papis. |
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| A nice shot of nr 64 of the Corvette Racing team on its way to the pits for a regular stop. This car was driven by Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen and won in the LMGT1 class dispite of the Aston Martin which was in the lead for 20 hours in this class. |
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| The Ferrari of the larbre Competition team sadly didn't finish the race. Drivers were Gabriele Gardel, Patrick Bornhauser and Jean Luc Blanchemain. |
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| The C5-R of the Luc Alphand Aventures team drove truly fantastic considering they had an older car. They finished third in their class and seventh overall. Drivers were Luc Alphand, Patrick Goueslard and Jérème Policand. |
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| Heavy thunderstorms were predicted so rain tires were lined up just in case. Eventually we were lucky since it was dry till the end of the race. |
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| The Corvette Racing team had a beautiful trailer to aid their car shipping needs. This trailer would be nice to have at our chapter to trailer our cars to all our events... |
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| We also found James Bond's car, a nice Aston Martin DB9, quite similar to the one used in the 007 films but without the Bond goodies. Nice car!!! |
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| The Porche of the Flying Lizard Motorsports team, driven by Johannes van Overbeek, Seth Nieman and Patrick Long ended on a respectable eightteens place. |
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| A spectacular view was offered from the grand stand. Thanks to Corvette Europe for providing us the VIP tickets for the Sunday. |
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| The Gulf colored Porche nr 73 of the Ice Pol Racing team did also finish the race succesfully and ended on the twenty fourth place. Drivers were Yves Lambert, Christian Lefort and Romain Iannetta. |
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| The Audi´s were truly almighty. Nothing was able to keep up with these cars. Also the noise they made was quite different. A low volume zzzzzzzzzzzzzffffff was all what was heard. Truly amazing cars and a well deserved first and third place (due to a technical failure on the clutch) was scored! Drivers of nr 7: Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish. |
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| The Panoz of the team LNT with the Chevy engine did remarkably well and earned itself a fantastic first place in their LMGT2 class. Well done boys! American cubic inches rules! Drivers of this nr 7: Tom Kimber-Smith, Richard Dean and Lawrence Tomlinson. |
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| Russian Age Racing was also represented with an Aston Martin and ended on a very impressive nigth place. This car was driven by David Brabham, Nelson Angelo Piquet and Antonio Garcia. |
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| Another nice photo of the circuit, the grand stand as the drivers must have seen it three hundred times (but ofcourse without the people walking there) |
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| On the podium the winners of the LMGT1 class, the drivers of the 64 Corvette Racing car! |
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| To end our racing adventure in style the Corvette club members present were invited in the Corvette Europe hospitality tent. Here we had the opportunity to meet the Corvette Racing drivers, the Corvette and Cadillac chief engineer Tom Wallace and the Corvette Racing team manager Doug Vehan. The picture shows NCRS UK member Lee Nimmo and Tom Wallace. |
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| Doug Vehan leaded the Corvette Racing team to the fantastic result: Four time in a row a Corvette victory on Le Mans. |
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| And here the deserved throphy together with Chris Howard, one of our English NCRS Chapter members. |
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| Some of the drivers of the CD-R's were permitted to pose in a 54 Corvette of one of the French Corvette clubs. |
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| Piet Baggerman of the proposed Dutch Chapter of the NCRS offered his car for this photo of the race car drivers |
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