In May 1923, a lone Bentley left London and headed for the ferry en route to France. Canadian John Duff was at the wheel and sitting alongside was fellow racer Frank Clement, while behind, cramped together with tools and spares, perched mechanics Arthur Saunders and Jack Besant. Their destination: Le Mans – the first edition of a new race for production cars to be held over 24 hours.
One hundred years later, the same #8 machine was back in London, standing proudly at the head of an assembled group of over 30 others, all members of the Benjafield’s Racing Club, ready to remake the crossing and return to France.
Duff and Clement had been the sole British entry in 1923, and remarkably finished fourth overall after losing time to a ruptured fuel tank, requiring Duff to run the three miles back to the pits, where Clement – equipped with petrol – borrowed a gendarme’s bicycle, rode against the traffic and plugged the leak to keep them in the race.
It was the combination of belief in his engines and drivers, together with a better understanding of how to prepare cars for endurance racing, that convinced WO Bentley to offer full factory support a year later. On their return and in a much-changed car, Duff and Clement took the first of five pre-Second World War victories for Bentley. Yet despite the significance of the early triumph, and the hat-trick of wins by Woolf Barnato (who remains the only driver with a 100% record of three from three), it’s the 1927 winning pairing of Dudley Benjafield and Sammy Davis whose heroics continue to inspire the current generation of enthusiasts.
Davis, a journalist and accomplished racer, and Benjafield, a doctor with a passion for speed, were the crew of one of three Bentleys that year. And all three were involved in the infamous White House crash. Approaching the blind turn at Maison Blanche as night began to fall, Davis noticed something was not quite right ahead and braked early before rounding the bend, where he saw the tangled wreckage of his team-mates and others strewn across the road. After throwing his car sideways in an effort to spare the engine, he hit one of the stricken cars hard, bending a wheel, an axle, the chassis, and the right-front wing. After making sure that all others were safe, he coaxed the #3 machine slowly back to the pits.
Source: Autosport