by Ross Finlay (14 Jun 02)

The roll call of makes which tackled the first Le Mans 24-Hour Race in 1923 reads like a memorial to the departed: among them were Salmson, SARA, Berliet, Bignan, Brasier, Excelsior, Rolland-Pillain, Chenard-Walcker, Lorraine-Dietrich and Corre La Licorne.

But then, of course, there was Bentley, now back at the Sarthe after 79 years, in a project regarded by the top management with much more enthusiasm than W O Bentley himself displayed before the 1923 race.

The single three-litre Bentley on that occasion was a private entry by John Duff, the company's London agent, although his partner in the race was Frank Clement, the only professional racing driver the original company ever employed.

It wasn't that W O Bentley didn't like racing. He thoroughly approved of it, to the extent of driving one of his cars in the 1922 Tourist Trophy. But he thought that a 24-hour event was the height of stupidity, and that there was a possibility of having no finishers at all at the end of it.

As Bentley Motors has been reminiscing, he didn't even intend to watch the 1923 race, but had a last-minute change of heart, heading for the Friday evening ferry across to France and then taking a rather grumpy rail journey to Le Mans.

The Turning Point

It was his road to Damascus. A few hours into the race, he was convinced this was an event Bentley simply had to win, because the publicity would be tremendous. Duff and Clement almost managed it, having led for a while and set fastest lap. But their car was slowed by having only rear-wheel brakes (W O was one of the many conservative designers of the time who thought four-wheel braking might be dangerous) and holing its petrol tank thanks to a stone thrown up from the loose-surfaced road.

They were back the following year with a fully works-prepared car, and did win. Following two unsuccessful attempts in 1925 and 1926, factory-run Bentleys with W O as a very crafty race manager won again in 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930, before the original company was sold off to a buyer who turned out to be representing Rolls-Royce.

In last year's return to Le Mans with full works entries, after a gap of 71 years, Bentley suffered more than most from the torrential rain. In weather they hadn't experienced in testing, the two EXP Speed 8 cars both had water leaks into their electronics systems, which made gear selection go haywire. One car expired, locked immovably in sixth gear, and the other had a water leak plugged in a splendidly "Bentley Boys" fashion with the top of an Evian bottle, although it also hit transmission trouble before finishing a fine third overall.

Another Old-Stager Firm

There's just one Bentley in the 2002 race, and it's the same with Morgan, whose Dewalt/RSS Aero 8, running to the GT(N) rules and fitted with a Heini Mader BMW engine, appears exactly 40 years after a Plus 4 won its class in the 24-hour race.

That was TOK 258 (pictured), which has recently been restored and is being driven to Le Mans this year as part of the Morgan support team. Lead driver in the 1962 class win was Chris Lawrence, who recalls that TOK "performed so well that the race itself was quite uneventful". Well, actually, he was Chris Lawrence then and is Christopher Lawrence now, as chief development engineer at Malvern and technical consultant to the Dewalt/RSS team.

The other British company with a long-standing Le Mans connection is MG, even if the modern 24-hour cars are actually MG Lolas.

MG scored several class wins at Le Mans in the 1930s, and did the same three decades later. In 1935 George Eyston, taking a break from his own racing and record-breaking exploits, managed an MG team of all-women drivers in P-type MG Midgets, a task he performed with all his customary aplomb.

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