Mulsanne camping and viewing closed

[lowdrag]

I hope none of you are planning to camp at Mulsanne, because today the police moved everyone out on safety grounds. It seems that it has now been declared a dangerous area and is no longer available. Now that's today for the prelims, but it is likely to apply to the race also.

[NormanD]

That's going to make even more goint to Arnage then.

[Dogmeat]

That sucks!

question, slightly off topic, as a spectator, how easy is it too move from one camping site to the other to view the track?

[blueST]

It does suck indeed. Used to like wandering through the forest at Mulsanne in the early hours. Lowdarag - Do you know what the risk is that they are worried about? Is it cars clearing the fence or something?

To answer the previous post's question. Moving round the various areas at the north end of the circuit is fairly easy, as it's all inside the general enclosure. If you want to get to or from Arnage, Mulsanne (maybe not now!) etc, you can either drive, or jump on a free a shuttle bus. Cycling would be much better, and probably no slower, than other options though.

[Chr1sch]

That bloody bus took about an hr to get on, about 3hrs to get past arrange and about 3 hrs to get back, was a bit of a nightmare tbh

[NormanD]

Looks as if this year I'm just going to stay at the hotel

I didn't bother getting tickets for the main areas just Arnage, thats ging to be worse to get to and from


So it's a good view allong the mulsanne, good food and a few beers (maybe the odd G&T and Champers)

[lowdrag]

Frankly I don't know, except that I found out at the bar that they had cleared everybody out "on safety reasons". Tongue in cheek, is it because the Peugeots are prone to take off? I intend to ring the press office if I can't get a reply from the course director to find out. It seems very strange.

[webby74]

any idea what the plan would be for those like me who have booked for mulsanne camping? would they offer an equal place somewhere else? obviously this is worrying for me

[lowdrag]

That was why I posted in the first place - to find out if there are any of you that had booked. I'll speak to the ACO tomorrow and then repost. Fingers crossed!

[billy whizz2]

I've got 5 pitches booked at Mulsanne and the tickets arrived earlier this week so definitely bad news for me and the rest of our party if this problem is not resolved

[andy_vtec]

Oh no no please no.

Saturday evening kicks off at Arnage from 1am - 3am, followed by 3:30am - sunrise at Mulsanne, before heading back to Maison Blanche for a nap.

Too many awesome memories to not be doing that every single year, and agree with the earlier comment Arnage will be even more overrun (which is one reason why we go late!) - please ACO get this sorted.

[FraMac]

Comment from Brian Sheehan, Principal at 1st Tickets, received 19h00 BST today:-

Quote:
...Had a good couple days and am on my way home. Will have a look at the threads when i can, but realistically it will tues before i can speak with the aco. however, at test there was only one campsite officially open. This was houx and it was pay on the day. Free camping was also available on white parking. Mulsanne and none of the other campsites were open. Once i have spoken to the aco i will post on both sites. In the meantime feel free to post this for me. Cheers brian

[lowdrag]

Had a drink - or two - with Brian Saturday. Lovely fellow. I want to make it clear here that what I heard is hearsay, and I'll talk to the ACO tomorrow. I am pretty sure in my own mind that this will be resolved.

[DS240]

Would seem a bit odd that after all the years there has been viewing/camping at mulsanne, it is suddenly dangerous!

Will be interesting to see what the issue was.

[icepop]

Well if it's potential hearsay, you've spooked alot of people.

[lowdrag]

So, I've been phoning around people I know trying to make some sense out of this. I spoke to a friend at Mulsanne and he was turned away when he arrived in his car too, and this is how the story started. "The place is closed". More phone calls down the line, I find that the gendarmes were trying to say that the parking was full and that entrance was on foot only. (If you know the site and it's size, you won't believe that for a starter). But it seems it was true - admission on foot only and nowhere to park the car outside, so bugger off!

I apologise for, as has been said, spooking you - that is not my way of doing things and I realise that despite having been told by a number of people yesterday that the viewing had been closed on security grounds I should have done my own checking before posting and giving you all heart attacks. In my defence, the story came from people I would usually consider reliable, hence the post.

Sorry.

[eddie main man]

Can't be closed. Imagine the money lost and all the hassle. Might be due to the area being incredibly dry. Last week on the roundabout which gives directions to Arnage, Leroy Merlin, north to main centre and south back to corner Arnage, there was a fire on Wednesday afternoon. Opposite to where all the Gipos were camped out. Fire brigade called out, Gendarmes unorganised as ever. Loads of traffic jams. Eventually cleared.

So I can only guess Mulsanne was closed due to similar reasons. It will be open for the race. Don't worry....

[Rs2oo]

lowdrag said:

Sorry.

Lowdrag, apology accepted and not necessary, we all value your imput every year mate !

[Camberwell]

we had that problem yesterday - arrived at Mulsanne the car park was half full and there was a steady stream of cars leaving, the controller refused to let us in, he got his boss out who spoke english a little better and told us to go to back the main entrance. To be honest their attitude was along the lines of "why are you here?", we drove all the way out there to be turned away - there was absolutely NO reason to do that.

The thing is if these people want to do this on the big day they will find a MASSIVE increase in people breaking the rules, finding un-controlled paths to the track to just get to see the cars, they are playing with fire by closing these important corners.

Anyway we found a lane on the Mulsanne straight where we caught a glimpse of the DB9 being pushed back (far left) before being shoed away by the controller - my first attempt at black ops, but not the last if they are going to do this to us.

[robbyd]

I trust this is all open for the race as the ACO has sold out of campsite tickets for Mulsanne as of a couple of months ago!