Taking pictures at Le Mans 24-hours

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Mrs CET and CET Junior are set on going to this next year, for various reasons, including an important birthday.   Has anyone been and taken photographs - if so would be v. interested in their experiences - particularly getting around the course and any recommended vantage points.

[FifeingEejit]

Yes.

Photos is easy, in places you're as close to the track as at the likes of Knockhill
Hope the link works
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlB7bV6RdTovowIHmh4K0fHkHnBv?e=36VXnR


You can split the track into 4 sections for access
The main race track area Ford Chicane to Tertre Rouge is all walkable - unsurprisingly this is the Bugatti circuit plus the esses to TR.
Mulssane Corner, you can get a bus down there and back
Indy/Arnage you can get a bus down there and back
Porsche Curves, you can get a bus down there and back too

I believe it is possible to oeek through on the Hunaudieres but you're not going to see much!

What me and dad did was spent most of the first day at the main section and the museum, then got the bus to mulsanne around sundown, moving round clockwise, so indy and arnage in the dark (just in time for a safety car...) then onto the porsche curves and back up to the grandstand.
Dad went to sleep... I went for a wander around the back of the pits and various displays then around the area in the dark including the terracing below the stands.

General Admission is pretty cheap, but the grandstands can cost you, so look at the map carefully
Think we were in Bernatto Tribute 14 which was a pretty decent spot as could see up the track to the bridge and down to the podium, missed the ceremonial start and then it was a safety car start for the race itself cos of the rain.
The stands were only full for the start, but not sure if you can sneak into the others through the night.

Once the race is over the track is unlocked and you can either leg it down to under the podium or use it as an easier walk back to the tram

Something else to be aware of, the tram drops you off at Tertre Rouge and you use the entrance for the far corner of the bugatti circuit (where the busses to the rest of the track leave from anyway)

[Wombat]

I'm assuming the circuit is still largely lined with tall wire fencing (as is pretty well every circuit these days)?  I last went in 2011, the year the Mazda 787B reappeared 20 years after its win there.  It made a lovely and terrifying noise, especially in the street parade the evening before the race.  Its one of those events that one really must "do", at least once, although I've only been twice, the other occasion was in 1979.  The museum is a must, but I have to confess to breaking the rule exhorted by the signs next to the Porsche 917 which won in 1967? as I just HAD to touch it.

Lots to see and do there, and at the English welcome event at St Saturnin the day before (or is it the day before that, can't remember?)

My first visit was memorable, my brother paid for me to go with him, on one of those coach trips, and whilst we tried to get an hour or two of sleep in a big polythene bag in the overnight rain, we were woken by a great commotion, which was a load of people getting very agitated, and two gendarmes pointing Uzi machine guns (or other similar make) at a Renault 5, exhorting the occupant to kindly exit.

At one of the many food stalls in the Saturday evening, we were chatting to an American sounding bloke who looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place him.  Donald Sutherland.  Dunno if he was a comrade of Steve McQueen, who was competing rather successfully that year.