I was there for the 17th time, took the Montreal along

The race was dull, at least in the main class. Privateer teams only have a chance of winning if all the manufacturer cars hit trouble, the rules are written for the benefit of the manufacturers, a diesel or petrol/hybrid coupe is the only way to go and cost a fortune to develop. Peugeot pulled out last year and Toyota were supposed to be spending this year testing so weren't actually ready for the race. They had a go but a mechanical failure and crash put paid to their efforts within a few hours. So Audi were left with almost 20 hours of cruising round in very quiet convoy (you have to hear the Audis to believe how quiet they actually are). The GT class was good but the main prototype class was a joke. And no fault of the entrants, I'm sure Audi wants to race other teams and I'm sure the privateer teams would like to be able to at least fight Audi for the win. I'm sure I'll be there again next year but it will be 2014 at least before new rules shake up things. Sadly the manufacturers will be favourites again but you can always hope...