The field consisted of 23 teams comprising a driver and a journalist, with a programme of a 10-minute “qualifying” session each followed by a relay race of 24 minutes each. To compensate for my lack of practice, I needed an experienced team-mate and Jean-François Yvon – the only driver still in activity to have raced without the Hunaudières chicanes – fitted the bill perfectly!

“I’ll do the first practice session, then you take over! Okay?” he asked as he prepared the N°20 kart. As he spoke, rain started to fall, making the track extremely slippery.

Ten minutes later, it was my turn to go out. “Be careful through the last right-hander, and try not to straddle the kerbs too much…” With those instructions ringing in my ears, I was off. The pit-lane exit was very narrow and still quite slippery, despite the fact that the rain had stopped. I had also forgotten how responsive the steering of a kart can be and I nearly clouted a cone as I joined the track. It wasn’t the best of starts.

I profited from the first straight to brake in the middle, just to make sure that I would make it through the following right-hander. I then delicately followed the inside of the turn, while all the other guys passed me at speed, treating me as a sort of mobile chicane. They could have been LMP1 cars for all I knew!

With each lap, my reflexes returned, and I did what I could to follow the others. The real drivers were easy to spot: first of all because they were fast, and also because they weren’t wearing the silly red-and-black race-suits that were handed out to the journalists for the occasion. Building up confidence, I tried to brake late – like the pros – for the right-hand hairpin, but I ended up spinning. How do they do it?

At the end of the second session, we were 20^th. Jean-François reassured me: “It’s not a problem. I’ll take the start…”

“Not a problem?” I hadn’t realised that the practice session was also the qualifying session. And the drier conditions meant that I was supposed to have gone for a quick time, whereas I spent my 10 minutes simply familiarising myself with the kart and the track. I didn’t even attempt a fast lap because I was convinced Jean-François would have done that. Oh well…

The race was started “Le Mans” fashion, with competitors flagged away by none other than Henri Pescarolo. Jean-François was 20^th on the grid out of 23, but he was punted off on the first lap. 24 minutes later, however, he was up to 13^th place before pitting to hand over to me.

The driver change wasn’t the slickest you will ever see, but I was soon on my way. I was much quicker than I had been during practice and I succeeded in overtaking two colleagues first time round. I was then hit from behind, which sent me into a spin. It must have been a journalist, because the real drivers know exactly where and how to overtake…

24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing