The eve of the 2015 Tour Auto involves one day of scrutineering in the splendor of the Grand Palais, Paris. This involves technical checks on all competing cars, crew and equipment. Cars number 205 and 206 the GT 40 and E-type Jaguar, to be crewed by the dynamic duos of Richard Meins, Tim Huxley and Chris Lillingston-Price, Keith Morris were subjected to forensic style scrutiny by French officials.
Inevitably problems were found which took most of the day to rectify. Small issues like size of the labels indicating cut off switches, arrows to towing points, serial numbers on identity papers and the correct number of fire extinguishers we should be carrying all took the entire day to resolve. Only in France could we be kept busy all day but achieve absolutely nothing. This was a tough day. With patience running low and tempers fraying, after huge assistance from Keith’s wife Laura, the translator and diplomat, and Steve and the team, everything is now in order and set for tomorrow’s early morning start (5.30am) heading to Magny Cours for our first race and further south to Vichy. Tomorrow the bureaucracy ends and the competition begins.
The last supper before the start was held at the legendry steakhouse in the seventh Arrondissement, Le Relais L’Entrecote, and unusually for this crew the red wine consumption was kept strictly to the minimum (although a swift night cap on the way back the hotel could not be resisted).
With the formalities behind us the competition can start, but with an arduous road ahead and such a highly competitive field this is going to be a challenging week. At least the sun is shining.
