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Marino Franchitti Le Mans diary: take two
Welcome back to sunny Le Mans! By Marino Franchitti Today we went to scrutineering in downtown Le Mans. It's a tradition here for the 24hrs and what a fantastic one! The fans are everywhere and make you feel like a rock star. Marino ...
Published: Jun 16, 2005, 10:02 AM
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Welcome back to sunny Le Mans!
By Marino Franchitti
Today we went to scrutineering in downtown Le Mans. It's a tradition here for the 24hrs and what a fantastic one! The fans are everywhere and make you feel like a rock star.
Marino Franchitti and Bryan Sellers.
Photo by Marino Franchitti.
I have included a self portrait of myself and co-driver Bryan Sellers from today. As you'll see photography is not an option as a second career! I'll post more of my own pictures as the week goes on.
The main point of the exercise is, of course, to ensure the car is legal and all your driver papers are in order. The Panoz Bank of Scotland team have done a great job during the weeks break between the official test day and the start of the week long activities leading up to the race. The cars went through without a hitch. They look mega too.
The guys in the team became addicted to Dairy Milk chocolate last year when I drove the Panoz, I made sure they had a bar at each race. It is available in other countries but tastes best for the UK so I brought them two huge boxes back from home which they were very happy about.
My team mates and I took the opportunity being downtown to sample some of the local food for lunch, it didn't disappoint.
The week's break was busy for my team mates, most of them heading back to the States to race at the Glen while I had a nice relaxing time in Scotland. Wish I could have joined them, I'd race every weekend given the chance.
I had my final training session before the race last night as anything from now until the race would be, for me, counter productive as you need to conserve energy. If you are not fit now, it's not going to change much in a couple of days!
Much of my time since my last diary entry has been spent in the bathroom ... I start hydrating over a week from a big race like this. I've been told the body is like a sponge and it's important to drink lots of water for longer than just the day before the race. This has lead to the high number of bathroom visits! The Panoz is pretty hot inside at the best of times (though much improved) but the forecast is for hot temperatures and high humidity for the race, that's when the extra preparation will pay off.
I did meet up with Allan McNish in Scotland and as his flight was delayed by three hours, we spent a fair bit of time together. It was good to talk over what I had learned at the test and he answered a few questions I had about the track and race. He was asking me a lot of questions about the test and the performance of cars in his class as he'd missed it racing in the DTM.
I'll let you all know how our first qualifying session goes tomorrow night, we run from 7-9 and 10-12 in the evening.
Thanks again and please check back soon!
Marino
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