1935 Le Mans

1935 — The potent and alarming appearance of the German marques in grand prix racing displaced and demoted ALFA-Romeo and Bugatti to the wrong end of the grids. No less than seven Bugattis joined a huge entry for 1935. But of the record 58 cars waiting for 4:00 o’clock, 37 were British including two well named 4.5-liter Lagonda Rapides.

The five ALFA-Romeos – four 8C2300s and a 1750 – were still the nearly unanimous pick of the pressroom and tribunes. Taking a page from W.O. Bentley’s effective promotions of his Le Mans victories, MG entered an "all-woman" three-car team of P-type Midgets, each wearing the Union Jack on its cowl, managed by George Eyston. Defying tradition, the Lagonda Rapides and Aston-Martin works entries were painted a rather stunning red, with the private Astons in, naturally, green.

Just 10 minutes before the 4:00 p.m. start, the rain – that had fallen for nearly a solid hour – stopped. And then that amazing silence, the last for a day, until 4:00 o’clock and the fall of the tricolour – the wet start pictured above. Brian Lewis was first away in Lord Howe’s immaculate ALFA, but Prince Nicholas put his Duesenberg first under the Champion Spark Plug Bridge. Five minutes later it was Lewis who was back first in Howe’s ALFA, then Raymond Sommer with a 15sec gap to Luigi Chinetti in the No. 11. The old Duesenberg was third and the No. 12 ALFA fourth, the largest of the Bugattis – the Veyron 4.9 barely ahead of John Hindmarsh’s red Lagonda.

The "grand prix" continued through Lap Two with Sommer – who was again forced to race solo, as his co-driver became ill on Thursday evening – had moved his ALFA in front of both Lewis and Chinetti. The potent mixture of adrenaline and testosterone was still at high tide, and Lewis led again at the end of the third lap when Sommer pitted, jumped out to fiddle with a balky plug lead and roared off after Lewis and Chinetti.

A light rain diluted the brew and calmed jangled opening-lap nerves. Lewis called at the pits and changed the distributor at the high cost of two laps. Hindmarsh moved the Lagonda into fourth with Sommer lapping faster than even Chinetti, who still held the lead.

It took Sommer nearly an hour to reclaim the lead, and the rain returned with genuine force. A flurry of pit stops before the mandatory 24-lap fuel window found Chinetti in for new tires. It was discovered that oil was leaking onto the rear brakes from the axle. A few laps later he was back with the same complaint.

The Veyron ALFA was first to pit after the minimum 24 laps had been completed. Sommer was next and managed to retain his lead despite a slightly longer stop. Less than a half-hour later, Prince Nicholas took to the escape road at Mulsanne. Even Chinetti had a light twirl on the wet road at Mulsanne and had to drive counter race briefly in the No. 11 ALFA to continue.

Lord Howe was finally at the wheel of his ALFA 8C2300, when he came upon the vast Duesenberg. Suddenly a stone flew from one of the Duesy's rear wheels and struck the ALFA’s windshield, smashing part of the glass and frame. Howe shrugged it off and continued the slog toward dusk in the gloom.

The so-called "transition" is one of the most difficult interludes of endurance racing, and the ‘35 dusk-to-dark episode was among the filthiest in Le Mans history. Dusk and gloom and curtains of tire-generated fog and spray call for close attention precisely when the body wants a reduction of mental and physical effort. Fotheringham suffered most in the No. 28 Aston Martin during a protracted slide at White House. The Aston ricocheted off the bank, snap rolled and spit the Englishman onto the road in front of his Aston teammate in the No. 30 1.5-liter. The Aston duo was being lapped by Hindmarsh’s 4.5 Lagonda. What followed was a small miracle. Fotheringham followed his car down the road rather than the hideous alternative, and Gardner and Hindmarsh were able to avoid both car and driver who suffered some nasty lacerations but nothing was broken or crushed.

With a quarter of the race run, the No. 28 Aston’s retirement was only the fifth of the evening. Rain had slowed and sobered the pace as midnight approached. Then solo-Sommer’s leading ALFA failed to appear.

The two-time winner was stranded on Mulsanne. No fuel was getting to the engine, and only through agonizing effort was the exhausted Sommer able to return to the pits just before 11:30. By midnight, he was back on course, seven laps behind the leading Lagonda of Hindmarsh and his teammate – winner of the 250 International Trophy at Brooklands – Luis Fontes. Three different marques sat atop the midnight order with Lagonda leading the No. 12 ALFA-Romeo of Helde and Stoffel and the Veyron-Labric Bugatti third, both a lap down.

An hour and a quarter later, Sommer was back in the pits off sequence, and the attention of France turned his way. He was already exhausted and ready to quit, but the crowd – there still was a crowd despite the weather – urged him on. So Sommer returned to the course, reluctantly. Common sense overtook him somewhere in the next two laps: over 14 hours remained, he was out of physical and mental resources and 20 laps behind the leading Lagonda. With 69 laps complete, Sommer parked his healthy No. 12 ALFA, again let down by an ill co-driver.

Lewis, in the Howe ALFA, went into the lead moments later, and when he pitted for fuel and a driver change, the Veyron’s No. 2 Bugatti was promoted to the lead and began a running fight with the Howe-Lewis ALFA.

At the halfway mark, Lord Howe’s No. 10 ALFA had a thin two-minute lead over the Bugatti. An hour later, the Bugatti’s engine blew. Chinetti parked his ALFA on the same lap, leaving Howe’s ALFA in the lead, backed up by the No. 12 ALFA of Stoffel and Helde. Both Lagondas had also been promoted: Fontes, a threatening third and Dr. Benjafield to fifth. At 5:30 a.m., with dawn promised, a piston in Lord Howe’s leading ALFA broke. Now the Stoffel/Helde ALFA went ahead, with Fontes' Lagonda second on the same lap. The 1500cc class leading Aston Martin of Martin and Blackeberry was an astonishing third with the first Le Mans entry from Delahaye fourth on the same lap as Dr. Benjafield’s Lagonda. Col. Eyston’s MG team of ladies was circulating regularly and reliably to orders.

Fontes and Hindmarsh spent the morning stalking the leading ALFA gently through occasional rain showers. By 10:00 a.m., they went ahead with six hours to go. Two hours later, Benjy Benjafield put his Lagonda into third only to have his transmission go sour. He spent the remainder of the afternoon bravely chugging around in top gear, watching the No. 14 trickle down the huge scoreboard every time he passed the pits.

With an hour to go, Fontes pitted the leading Lagonda with alarming news about his oil pressure. Three minutes later he was back on course, still in the lead, but with a weather eye on the descending oil pressure needle. Trailing the Lagonda by two laps, the No. 12 Stoffel/Helde ALFA appeared in the pits just as Fontes was disappearing under the Champion Bridge. The stop generated some mild confusion in both the public address and the ALFA’s pits.

After the unscheduled stop, Helde took up the chase again and, at 3:40 p.m., passed the oil-starved Fontes Lagonda. Word went out that the ALFA was now, indeed, in the lead, and Helde drew away at speed. When he next passed the pits, orders went out to slow the No. 12 ALFA and run just fast enough to preserve his spare lead.

At 3:58 p.m. the truth was told. Too late.

There had been an error: the ALFA was not ahead but merely on the same lap with the leading Lagonda. The PA was wrong, the ALFA pits had erred and the clock permitted no opportunity to correct the error. Luis Fontes was five miles ahead at 4:00 o’clock and ALFA-Romeo had tossed away a sure fifth consecutive Le Mans victory.

Lagonda had delivered Britain her first win on the Sarthe since ‘30. It was the first for the marque as well. But the pace was still slower than Nuvolari and Chinetti’s record of ‘34, but still it was a great day for England. In addition to the Lagonda triumph, the Martin/Blackberry Aston Martin won the 1.5-liter class with a superb and well-judged third overall. The No. 42 MG finished ninth overall on its way to victory in the 1100cc class. A record 28 cars finished.

It was another despite-all-odds story of a British underdog, complete with the requisite twists and turns and pathos to keep the growing legions of Le Mans fans amused until June ’36.