Hello,
My name is Bill and I found your site this evening and have enjoyed looking at the various posters, pictures, etc. about Le Mans. As a 20 year old college student on holiday in Europe in 1964, Le Mans remains to this day one of the great experiences of my life. The very short story is I had picked up a new Triumph TR 4 in London ( See photo of it and me the following year in Los Angeles), and while sitting at a cafe in the square of Le Mans on Wednesday before qualifying, I met a young man from Le Mans who admired my car. Then, he proceeded to tell me he was an interpreter for the race and asked if I had a place to stay and a ticket for the race. I said I had neither. In short order, I found myself renting a room from his parents and armed with a pass that allowed me to go virtually anywhere I wished at the track. That meant, behind the pits where the cars were parked and in the area opposite the pits where the drivers could meet and talk. It had food and as I recall small tables with umbrella shades. That's where I met Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Bruce McLaren, Masten Gregory and Bob Bondurant, all of the Ford effort and a young racer from Austria who shared a stand up table with me on Thursday afternoon. His name was Jochen Rindt and in our short time together chatting, I remember him as being a very nice guy, interested in what had brought me to Le Mans, confident in what he was attempting and soft spoken.
As you know, none of the GT40's lasted very long in the race, but from what I gathered, Ferarri knew quite well that a formidible opponent had come to Le Mans. Today, I wouldn't be allowed any where near the areas I had free access to in '64. I also don't think the drivers would be as open as they were back then, either. Even with Ford's huge committment to go racing, when I asked Masten Gregory how fast his Ford GT40 was going down Mulsanne, he told me. 240. That's 240 mph down Mulsanne day and night, no chicanes, barely any Aarmco and the trees just off the road marked with white paint around the lower trunk area.
At that time, the race track was open to public access at all times other than practice, qualifying and the race itself. The night before the race, between midnight and 2 am, I drove my TR4 around Le Mans for nearly two hours as fast as I could drive. Nearly lost it the first time I hit the Indianapolis curve and only slowed down slightly when passing the pits, as some teams were busy working on their cars. Mindful there could be on coming traffic on the Mulsanne, I stuck to the right lane mostly, but had my TR4 flat out in 4th gear and to this day I still remember seeing the white paint on the tree trucks just off the road at the start of Mulsanne after Tetre Rouge.
I shot 16 mm film of the race, including the start from my standing position right over the Ferrari pits, but that film was destroyed when my car was broken into in Berlin. That's another story which has nothing to do with racing.
I've been to many races before and since Le Mans, including 6 F1 races, but nothing has ever equaled my 5 days in the town of Le Mans in the summer of 1964.
Best regards,
Bill
Als ik dat verhaaltje zo lees denk ik: dát waren nog eens tijden, toen autorijden nog gevaarlijk was en sex nog veilig... 
) deelde op de tribunes deze luciferboekjes uit:
