Companions My English companions deserve mention here - I had only met them on Friday - and they were magnificent - scooping me up and taking me with them - which was brilliant. Now I could move fast - they had a car - and we shared the weekend in a way I never would have been able to do.

They had come from across the channel, but I had come from the other side of the world, and I was determined to see as much of the spectacle as I could. But to see a 24 race you have to be awake for two days. The race doesn't start as soon as you wake up. And so in the middle of the night you start getting a bit rummy, and this helps maginify the fantastic & mysterious nature of the whoe thing.

We would watch from a corner and wander back and forh comparing notes, listening to the radio coverage, and after a time nip off to a neighboring town to have a bite. The smaller the town the better the food, and the sweeter the people. We were in the town of Arnage - and sitting at a long table - breaking bread together - but one person with his ear on the radio reporting at intervals who was in the pits, who was struggling with what thing.

Laurence, Richard & Oliver Penney - with Norman Knipe (in Spectacles)