It’s corny, but it’s true – Le Mans is the biggest British sporting event held in France. Every year, tens of thousands make a pilgrimage as old as the race itself. After the first race, in 1923, The Autocar noted that ‘among the English spectators were Mr Vernon Pugh and Miss Pugh, who motored down on an Alvis car, and Mr TP Searight, who had the misfortune to sprain his ankle when walking at the back of the pits in the darkness’.

They had seen just one British car, a 3-litre Bentley. Of the 33 starters, only it and two Belgian Excelsiors were ‘foreigners’: the rest were French – but the Bentley’s impact would be felt forever after. It wasn’t a ‘works’ car, because WO Bentley initially didn’t see the point of the event: ‘of course’, he wrote later, ‘in one way it was just what we had been wanting in order to show off our cars at their best – a long gruelling race with a good, long straight, for standard production cars. But 24 hours! All through the night! This was ridiculous, and no car would survive. I gave it no more thought...’

WO lent two mechanics, though, and went along to manage the Bentley pit. He also sanctioned works racer Frank Clement to drive the car with its entrant, Bentley agent Capt John Duff.

Duff held the Brooklands Double-Twelve-Hour record, but it was both drivers’ first 24-hour race. They drove the Bentley to the circuit with what spares they could carry, but in the race, in spite of terrible weather and worse roads, they had no mechanical problems, used only one set of Rapson straightsided tyres, and without delays could certainly have threatened the two Chenard-Walckers and the Bignan that finished ahead of them. They suffered a broken headlight during the night, however, and had to repair a holed fuel tank on Sunday, after Duff had run out of petrol at Arnage and jogged the four miles back to the pits, leaving Clement to return with cans slung over his shoulders, on a bicycle ‘borrowed’ from a French soldier. That cost them two-and-a-half hours.

Fourth place, and fastest lap, would revise WO’s opinions. As he wrote later, ‘I remember that the pit was a tent that year, that the organisation was rather primitive, that it rained a great deal, that the road broke up early on, and that I was surprised and delighted that we were able to hold our own. In fact, after a few hours I began to enjoy life greatly, and to realise that this was a race that might have been instituted especially for our benefit’.

He was bitten as British enthusiasts have been ever since, and would return to contest the second leg of the Triennial Cup that was Le Mans’ main prize (officially, there was no winner in each annual race). The love affair had begun.