1929 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1929 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 7th Grand Prix of Endurance that took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe on 15 and 16 June 1929.
A new by-pass road, the Rue de Circuit, was built 600 metres ahead of the Pontlieue hairpin at the edge of the city.
Belying its precarious financial position, defending winners Bentley arrived with a very strong five-car entry, led by the new Speed Six sport version of its 6½-litre tourer.
Another Le Mans winner, Dudley Benjafield, was slated to drive the car, but he gave his place to Birkin believing he would have a better chance of winning.
[7] They were assigned to more of the “Bentley Boys”: Frank Clement / Jean Chassagne, Benjafield with Baron André d’Erlanger and Glen Kidston/Jack Dunfee.
The fourth car, of Earl Howe/Bernard Rubin, had only a week earlier been used in a 24-hour record-breaking attempt at Montlhéry by Mary Petre and her husband Victor Bruce.
The experienced driving squad was supported by Bertie Kensington-Moir, back from Lagonda as team manager, and Walter Hassan as lead mechanic.
Automobiles Elite, of Paris, hired Guy Bouriat and Philippe de Rothschild; while Paris-based American Charles Terres Weymann had grand-prix master Louis Chiron with the experienced Édouard Brisson.
It would be driven by the first Americans at Le Mans – Charles Moran Jr. (a friend of E. Paul du Pont, who had raced in Europe the previous year) and Alfredo Luis Miranda (the Mexican-born New York dealer for DuPont).
The ‘75’ was the 1929 model, driven by team regular Henri Stoffel, this time along with French GP racer Robert Benoist.
Offering a standard design in three wheelbase lengths, the 1928 LC (“large-chassis”) version featured the current 4.5-litre Meadows engine that put out 100 bhp.
Once fitted with a supercharger (as the S-Type Hyper) it could reach 145 kp/h (90 mph) and became very popular with privateer drivers and Kaye Don won the RAC Tourist Trophy handicap.
Enthused by this, gentleman racer Ken Peacock entered a car with Lea-Francis distributor Sammy Newsome as his co-pilot.
[15][1] The success of Tracta’s patented front-wheel drive system had attracted considerable investment from Charles Terres Weymann, which helped to allow the team to enter four cars to the race.
Lucien Lemesle, the mechanic in the crowd who had volunteered to help Grégoire in the debacle that was their 1927 race, returned as a co-driver to Maurice Benoist.
[4] Grégoire prudently assigned his head mechanic Tribaudot, who had assembled the engine, to co-drive Roger Bourcier (given the rule that only the drivers could work on the car during the race).
[17] Bollack Netter and Co (BNC) had collapsed and been bought out by entrepreneur Charles de Ricou, who would also buy the struggling Rolland Pilain and Lombard companies.
[14] The British teams got to the track at the start of the week, to familiarise themselves with the circuit and the new layout in unofficial practices (with the roads still for public use).
[19] After testing and a shake-down run for the DuPont at the Montlhéry circuit, Moran was concerned about Miranda's lack of pace and decided to drive the whole event himself.
[4] Left at the line was the D’Yrsan with Trillaud losing seven minutes pushing the car up the road trying to get his engine fired (technically a disqualification offense).
[1] Howe was next, though he soon moved up as the rain stopped to join his teammates, with Benoist and Mongin in their Chryslers and Moran's DuPont making up the top ten.
[19][5] Then Benoist's skill as a Grand Prix driver came to the fore in the darkness as he successively overtook the Stutz and the Bentley to push up to fourth by 6am.
Just before halftime the Tracta special – which had been in danger of disqualification as a driving hazard because of its excessive exhaust – broke a fuel line and retired.
With over 700 km (430 mi) spreading the small field, the only real point of excitement was the Chrysler trying hard to reel in the Stutz to take fifth place.
In the mighty Speed Six, Tim Birkin had stamped an impressive new lap record, fully 46 seconds faster, helped by the slightly abbreviated track layout.
[23][2] In finishing fourth, Frank Clement has the distinction of being the only driver to have participated in all seven of the Le Mans through the 1920s, all for Bentley and including the distance victory in 1924.
[19] In August, the innovative supercharging pioneer René Cozette was killed making a speed-record attempt when he crashed at 200 kp/h at Montlhéry.
[25][17]In November, Kidston was badly burned when he was the sole survivor in an air-crash in England of a Luft Hansa passenger flight.
