1933 24 Hours of Le Mans
The current European champion was paired with one of the previous year's winners, Raymond Sommer From the start, the Italian cars set a strong pace.
Sommer broke the track-record several times building a two-minute lead over the Alfas of Chiron, Lewis, Chinetti and Moll.
Chiron was delayed by an intransigent starter unit, but his co-driver Franco Cortese drove hard to bring the car back up to second going into the night.
A processional first half of the race was turned on its head come the dawn on Sunday when Nuvolari brought the leading Alfa in with fender damage and a leaking fuel-tank.
Going onto the last lap, the superior speed of Nuvolari's car allowed him to pass on the back straight, only to lose it again under braking at the Mulsanne corner.
When Chinetti was baulked by slow traffic coming out of White House it gave Nuvolari the clear run to the flag, to win by just 400 metres.
After the major circuit changes in the previous year, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) continued with further improvements to the track.
A yellow centre-line was painted down the Hunaudières Straight and reflective markers – forerunners of cat's eye reflectors were put on the approach to all the corners to assist during night driving.
[4] The ongoing struggles for the automotive industry were reflected by the fact that there were only four works teams present – a single French Tracta, as well three British Aston Martins, a Riley and a new Singer – none of which were of a pace to challenge for outright victory.
[6] This year they were in separate cars: Sommer ran the Mille Miglia 4-seater version, again fitted with an oversized fuel tank that would allow 27 laps between refills.
But the German ace had broken his leg at Monaco early in the season and for Le Mans Chiron was joined by former works driver Franco Cortese who had finished second at the Mille Miglia.
With Talbot also withdrawing from motorsport, this year Arthur Fox entered an 8C tourer for his regular drivers Brian Lewis, Baron Essendon and Tim Rose-Richards.
Racing journalist Roger Labric came back with the Lorraine-Dietrich he had entered two years earlier, this time driving it himself, using the Biennial Cup entry he had earned finishing in a small Caban.
Technical Director and designer "Bert" Bertelli ran with former Le Mans winner and "Autocar" journalist Sammy Davis, while the other car had team regulars Pat Driscoll and Clifton Penn-Hughes.
The 4-seater International that had won its class, finishing fifth the previous year, had been sold to "Mort" Morris-Goodall, who ran it as a works car with Elsie "Bill" Wisdom.
Two weeks earlier, in the Bol d'Or 24-hour race, they had brought the car home in second - giving them confidence to take on the Astons.
[12] After the disbursement of the Amilcar racing stable the previous year, their Parisian distributor, Clément-Auguste Martin bought the remaining MCO models from José Scaron for his Équipe de l'Ours team.
However, Jean Chassagne, the Le Mans veteran with Bentley, Aries and Sunbeam, was on-hand and able to help get the car repaired and ready to take the start.
The honorary starter this year was Col Lindsey Lloyd, vice-president of the British Auto Club,[5][19] and at the flagfall the quickest car away was the Alfa Romeo of Brian Lewis.
[5] Further back were Tarante (Bugatti), Trévoux (Bentley), Prince Nicholas (Duesenberg), Mme Siko in the smaller Alfa, and Driscoll rounding out the top-10 in the first of the Astons.
The co-drivers had taken over and Gunzberg was second ahead of Rose-Richards, Cloitre, Cattaneo (finally getting a drive) in the Duesenberg, and Cortese rushing to make up his lost time.
On his out-lap after taking over the Bentley, Louis Gas misjudged his braking at the Mulsanne corner and ploughed straight through the fencing hitting a tree.
Bleeding from smacking his head on the steering wheel in the impact, he limped back to the pits, but the front axle was too bent to continue.
[15] During the evening, the public address announced to the spectators that Sommer and Nuvolari had covered the first 500 km faster than Giuseppe Campari had done in the French Grand Prix the week before at Montlhéry.
[7][20] At 2am Sammy Davis, running well in the top-10, brought his Aston Martin into the pits with front suspension issues and an hour was spent replacing the springs.
The smaller Siko/Charavel Alfa had moved past the stationary Bugatti into fifth with Driscoll's Aston Martin in seventh ahead of the Riley in eighth with twenty cars still on-track.
[10] Bertelli, running sixth, pitted his Aston Martin at 7.30 to secure his fenders that were coming adrift – a delay that cost time and a position.
[7] Braking hard to avoid ramming him, Chinetti was crucially baulked and that was all that Nuvolari needed to charge on to take the victory by the slimmest of margins – only 10 seconds, or barely 400 metres, after 24 hours racing.
In a race of attrition, the little 1.1-litre Riley of Ken Peacock/Bill van der Becke came home an excellent fourth, comfortably winning the Index of Performance.
During the second heat former Alfa Corse works drivers Giuseppe Campari and Baconin Borzacchini collided and crashed on the south banking, killing both.
