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Le Mans 24 Hour Race - 17th and 18th June, 2000


If you like motorsport and haven't been to the 24 Heures, you're missing a treat.
Apart from the local traffic jams on race day, everything about it is wonderful - the circuit, the atmosphere, the cars and of course the racing through the night. The circuit itself - Circuit de la Sarthe - is made up of dedicated race track (a couple of kilometres either side of the start/finish line) and closed public roads.

The race may happen over one 24 hour period, but the preparations take the best part of the preceding week.
Scrutineering takes place in the early part of the week in the town centre. Track action begins with the two Qualifying sessions on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Each evening is split into two parts: 7pm to 9pm, then 10pm to midnight (offically a 'night' session).
Friday is 'pit walk day' when the public have access to the pit road and the teams are busy with final preparations (or re-building the cars if they broke them during Qualifying!).
Race day itself features a number of warm-up races and parades before the main event, which begins with a rolling start at 4pm prompt.

Cars were competing in 2000: Audi (R8), Panoz, Courage, Vipers, Corvettes, Cadillic Northstar, BMW, Reynard, Dome, WR, Lola and, of course, a legion of 911s. So a wide range of engine notes, from howling Judds to thundering US V8/V10s.

I had the privilege of being a race marshall. Marshalls are on duty whenever the circuit is open. To cover the long periods involved, the marshalling crews work in shifts. The shift pattern gave me Thursday night off (2nd Qualifying) and also the first two hours at the start of the race. I used these to try out some simple recording equipment.

Thursday 15th June. Second Qualifying.
First session - recordings from the ACO stand
The ACO stand is on the outside of the circuit and directly opposite the pit lane and garages. This gives an excellent view of cars coming into and out of the pits, and being worked on.
This first track is a soundscape from the stand, with the commentary echoing around the structure. Cars are passing at speed (from left to right) as they power past the start/finish line up the hill to the Dunlop curves. 1:40, 1.4MB

Moving to the left of the stand, nearer the pit lane exit brings in sounds of wheels being changing and cars emerging from the pits. The warning horn for cars entering the pits is also heard. 2:49, 3.2MB

Second session
The start of the second session on the Thursday evening is a signal for teams go for their best lap times, bidding for pole position. At 10pm, the light is still good, even though its offically 'dark'. The air is cooling, making it more dense and allowing cars to develop more power then during the heat of the day.

From the stand at the Dunlop chicane. The chicane is immediately after the Dunlop curve at the end of the pit straight. Cars brake on entry to the curves at the left, then power away beneath the Dunlop bridge and over the crest of the hill. 2:15, 2.6MB

Downhill to the Esses. After cresting the summit after the Dunlop bridge, it's a fast downhill dash to the Esses, a chicane on the way to Tertre Rouge corner. On this recording, the first car through overcooks things and goes off, and can be heard rejoining the track as cars power past. 4:02, 4.6MB.

Tertre Rouge and onto the Mulsanne straight. Tertre Rouge is a sharp right hand corner at the end of the downhill section from Dunlop Bridge. It marks the transition of the track from the dedicated race circuit to public road - the N138 to Tours, the Mulsanne straight - where the cars stream off into the distance. 3:31, 4.0MB.

Soundscape at the end of the Second Session. Recorded from a car park in the circuit infield at midnight, just after the close of play. Cars are still circulating down to Tertre Rouge on 'cool down' laps (ha!) and can be heard in the far distance heading towards Mulsanne corner. 2:32, 2.9MB

Saturday/Sunday 17/18th June. The Race
Having an off-duty period at the start of the race was a bonus, which allowed me to record the very beginning from the infield at Arnage corner, the slowest on the circuit.

The rolling start lap at Arnage corner. The race has a rolling start at 4pm prompt at the start/finish line, so the cars depart the grid behind a pace car at 3:55. This rolling start lap gives an opportunity to see and hear the field close together before race pace spreads them out. In this recording, the cars approach from Indianapolis to the left, slow for the apex of Arnage and then pull away towards the Porsche Curves. 1:50, 2.1MB

The opening lap at Arnage With the race finally underway the tempo is distinctly urgent. Cars scrub off speed under braking into Arnage, then accelerate away. 1:27, 1.7MB

Lap 3. A slightly different recording position, just after the exit from Arnage corner. Cars accelerate strongly towards the Porsche Curves. Even after so few laps the field has spread out significantly. 3:18, 3.8MB

Once the race is underway, marshalling settles down into a routine of duty (intense concentration) and resting (but hardly sleeping!), with snatched meals between. Not much chance for recording, but I did make one take at the end of duty in the small hours of Sunday morning.
Soundscape north of Arnage, 05:20am. Recorded from a minor road a couple of hundred yards away from the track. Against a general background of cars arriving from Indianapolis in the distance, competitors accelerate away from Arnage (at the right). This is the continuous soundtrack when the race is in progress. 4:59, 5.7MB

Recordings made using using a Sony ECM907 one-point stereo microphone into a Sony MZ-R37 minidisc recorder, with AGC engaged. The mic was hand-held, mounted in a small home-made wind shield.
I have often wondered if more sophisticated equipment (eg condenser mics) would have given better results. I suspect not. The high sound levels were perfectly suited to the relatively low sensitivity of the Sony mic. Better low fequency response would have been nice, though, to fully capture the sound of the big US engines. The recorder AGC worked pretty well too: 'gain 'pumping' is well controlled.
Edited using Wavelab 6.


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