A simply staggering story of a potential catastrophe at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours was printed earlier this week by Ouest France and was spotted by Mat Fernandez!

A few minutes before 3pm, before the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a French policeman slowly drove his car on the Hunaudieres in the opposite direction of race traffic.

Alphonse (that is his name) is 50 years old or so. He is (or rather was!) a chief superintendent of the Police in Le Mans. A few minutes before the start, he was at the Mulsanne entrance of the track. He got angry and impatient at the gendarmes blocking the access to the track. He became insistent, showed his French police badge and demanded to be let on track. The gendarmes let him go!

Alphonse was not on track yet but close. He then faced several representatives of the ACO blocking the access to the track. Again, he gets angry, shows his badge, etc and they too let him through!

That then saw him driving on the Hunaudieres heading North until he suddenly apparently understood that he should not be here and decided to do a U turn and head back south. This time, he was blocked by the gendarmes who let him through the first time. He explained that he wanted to go on the track to ensure that safety measures were fully implemented!

In the end, Alphonse got a warning letter from his hierarchy and a new job… in Orleans!