There is one of those excellent Decathlon stores near the second chicane on the Mulsanne straight. With so many closed roads, it takes a while to find the way in, but once ensconced you can enjoy the perfect retail experience. It's a big store too - crammed full of sporting and outdoorsy stuff you'll never use.
Red flags after Audi crash gave food for thought
I love Decathlon and always stop and buy a swing-ball in the winter, or a plastic toboggan in the summer. Hearing the cars, well most of them, zooming past just 40 yards away reminds you why Le Mans remains such a special place. Life kind of goes on around, and in very close proximity to the fastest circuit race of all.
But when everything goes silent, even when you're trying to translate the back of French energy bar, reminders of another nature twist your stomach. I checked Twitter a few minutes later and saw a picture of what was once Duval's Audi. Many thoughts swirl around your head when you see images like that: was it mechanical failure? Is he alive? And, if so, how is he still alive? Because that looked like the most appalling shunt.
But these LMP1 cars really are something else. Repeatedly they are crashed at insane speed, into very solid objects and the drivers somehow survive. Duval has some cuts, but is otherwise okay we're told, but the medical types have decided not to allow him to race.
Back to the job at hand; yes this is real!
The one thought that doesn't enter your mind is 'Bloody hell, I'm out on that track in a few hours.' I don't know why - I suspect it's because you're so excited to be racing a 460hp Porsche on the full Le Mans circuit.
Duval's red flag didn't delay our 8:30pm session because no time is added on to practice slots. This is a very, very long race weekend - many drivers in the Carrera Cup race arrived on Monday, and the race is at 11:15am on Saturday (10:15am UK time, and live on Eurosport). Too many hours for standing around and buying inflatable badminton nets from Decathlon.
This is a combined GT3 Cup effort from Great Britain and France, with some others thrown in for good measure. I think I counted 61 cars in all - from memory seven of those are the older 997s, the rest are new 991s. Until last night I hadn't sat in a 991 Cup, but I had seen the circuit before - so I was at a rank disadvantage in one respect, but fortunate in another.
The Carrera Cup paddock is about the same size as Milton Keynes and miles away from the main pits, so we were shunted up there in a slow-moving convoy. The 991 Cup despises crawling even more than the 997, so I kangaroo'd my way with zero style. When the lights went green for the first practice session, we'd been suited and booted for an hour and a half. Sometimes I find that plays havoc with my concentration, but on this occasion there was too much to learn not to be fully engaged. It's amazing how much of a circuit you can forget after a year.
Harris is racing 'am' category in 61-car grid
Learning the car and reminding myself of the track wasn't ideal. It's not actually possible to just cruise a lap here - the place is so fast, but with tyre pressures set very low we had to stay off the kerbs for the first 8.52-mile loop. Then I kind of went as fast as I dared.
I'm not really sure if racing a 1959 Lister last year was helpful preparation or not. Into the first Mulsanne chicane last year I was braking before the 300m board, by the end of this session, I'd be stopping from an indicated 287km/h at the 200m board. Basically, I had to re-learn every braking, turning and throttle-squeezing point.
It's a cracking racing car - a little easier to drive than the 997 - but it's so damn quick. The added gurney did its job well because a good release from Tetre Rouge would see you clip the limiter in sixth just before the first chicane - get a tow and it happens sooner, obviously. I suspect there will be all kinds of mayhem into both chicanes as people think their 1mph advantage should equal immediate rights to all real estate leading into those chicanes.
Like the 997, the skill seems to be maintaining maximum braking pressure right into each apex - not easy with all that mass out back trying to rotate as you trail it in. There are lock-up lights on the dash, but I preferred to use the analogue method of allowing the cabin to fill with tyre smoke, before releasing the middle pedal.
Track knowledge offsets zero car experience
I stopped on lap three to check tyre pressures - they were low at the front - and then I stayed out for the remainder of the hour, helpfully lurking behind Redline team-mate and Porsche genius Michael Meadows for a few laps. I couldn't live with his sheer pace and accuracy, but remained close enough for long enough to learn a few things - always the best way in my experience.
The best parts of the circuit? Well, it's all a pinch yourself experience; really it is. But being more critical with front pressures not quite right the car was understeering pretty much everywhere, and I couldn't get much rhythm through Dunlop and out of Tetre Rouge - likewise the second chicane where the front just pushed. But into Indianapolis, with the sun boring into your eyes, braking after the 200m board, snapping down a gear with the left paddle then holding the throttle through the right and playing chicken with the gravel trap to make the next sharp left - yep, that had me grinning like a school boy. The section just flows beautifully.
Unlike the Porsche curves where I was experimenting with gears and lines and not really making anything work. Seems I wasn't alone in that.
Cheer Harris on from 1015h on Saturday
I'm definitely wearing ear-plugs for today's qualifying session. These cars run the older Mezger 3.8-litre flat six, one of the great sounding engines, but the shriek from the straight-cut gears is so intense you can barely hear the motor. The pneumatic paddle-shift is pretty sexy though - makes the car feel like a GT2 racer.
In fact, it really isn't far off. The fastest driver in our session, Earl Bamber, ran a 4.05.004 - that would have put him in the bottom third of the GTE Am class in the 24-hour race!
There are two classes in the Carrera Cup race, A and B. A is for pros, B is for ordinary bods - I'm in B. I went well in that session ending second in class with a 4.09.925, behind PHer and Carrera Cup GB hand Karl Leonard. That meant 24th overall. Somehow I expect today's quali session will be a bit tougher.
But screaming down Mulsanne at 170mph-plus in a 911 with an enormous rear wing is kind of awesome regardless of where you finish.
Additional photography: LAT Photo
To return to the most recent blog and comments click here.