24h Le Mans
The history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is littered with tales of derring-do. A race as long and arduous as the French endurance classic certainly puts drivers and machinery under considerable strain. Sometimes, thinking outside of the box becomes part of the game to keep a tight rein on one’s fate. The 1933 race was one such occasion where a dash of audacity paid dividends.
After dominating the previous two 24 Hours of Le Mans with its high-performance model 8C, Alfa Romeo was red-hot favourite in 1933 to make it three in a row. In fact, given the lowly standard of competition, a potential scrap between the five private entrants fielding the Italian model was very much on the cards.
The start of the race gave no cause to believe that the expected scenario would not materialise. The #11 8C entered by Frenchman Raymond Sommer stormed into the lead without much ado. The “Boar of the Ardennes” was still learning the ropes, but already showed outstanding promise. After winning the race in 1932, he appeared to be well on course to defend his crown quite comfortably.
Sommer’s rivals, trailing in his wake, tried to keep pace as best they could. Firstly the #15 Alfa Romeo of Louis Chiron and Franco Cortese, followed by the #8, driven by Philippe de Gunzbourg and Luigi Chinetti, who had won with Sommer in 1932. After 27 laps, Sommer pulled into the pits to hand over to his co-driver – and what a co-driver! Tazio Nuvolari, “the greatest driver of the past, the present and the future” according to Ferdinand Porsche. The Italian was considered to be one of the very best of his day but, as he was making his Le Mans début, he had asked not to do too many stints in the dark. So far, so good.
After an incident-free night, the leaders encountered their first incident as dawn broke. Nuvolari, back at the wheel, made an impromptu stop to secure a loose mudguard. He attached it with a piece of string but as he was about to set off again, a mechanic spotted a hole in the fuel tank of the #11 car that required repair. The team took 16 minutes to bung the hole with soap – sufficient time for their closest rivals to overtake.
The leak was a cause for concern as, at the time, competitors had to complete at least 24 laps between refuelling stops. The thought of the Alfa Romeo 8C running out of fuel on the other side of the circuit scared Sommer while Nuvolari strove to make up for lost time. Sommer suddenly had a brainwave. He asked two people to find some chewing gum – lots of it – to stop the leak as the hours ticked by.
The duo began to make ground on the #15 8C of Chiron/Cortese who had stolen the lead, but they held firm. After four hours of hard labour, they managed to regain the advantage but the pressure was off the scale. As 10.00 a.m. struck, Cortese lost a wheel bearing and ran off the track, forcing an early retirement. Nuvolari and Sommer held a two-lap advantage over their nearest rivals, Chinetti and de Gunzbourg.
Major issues continued to eat away at the leading car into the afternoon. Heavy vibration fractured a radiator bracket and then the exhaust. As if that was not enough, the brakes began to show signs of wear and the fuel tank leak worsened by the minute. The entire crew began to chew frantically to soften enough gum to fix the breach. As a result of the prolonged pit stops, de Gunzbourg edged ever closer and, eventually, took the lead with less than one hour to go!
With forty minutes remaining on the clock, the quicker Chinetti replaced his team-mate for the final sprint. In the meantime, Nuvolari regained the upper hand but had to make a final stop just ten minutes from the chequered flag. The suspense was breathtaking. As Nuvolari emerged from the pits, Chinetti sped past. The battle was on! The #11 Alfa Romeo was faster down the Mulsanne Straight but its impaired brakes hindered Nuvolari in Mulsanne Corner where Chinetti overtook again! He managed to hold off Nuvolari’s attacks as far as Indianapolis, but “the man who made a pact with the Devil” did not give up so easily.
Under pressure, Chinetti went wide at Arnage, whipping a camera out of the hands of a trackside journalist and leaving the door open for his rival. Heading towards Maison Blanche – just after the Porsche Curves on today’s circuit – the two Italian heroes encountered a bunch of dawdling competitors waiting for four o’clock to strike and avoid having to complete an extra lap for nothing.
François Paco in his Alfa Romeo 6C saw Nuvolari zip by. Paco moved over immediately afterwards, not realising that Chinetti was in hot pursuit. Chinetti braked hard to avoid the collision, but it was all over. Tazio Nuvolari and Raymond Sommer won the 1933 24 Hours of Le Mans by just 10 seconds, or 401 metres, setting a new distance record in the process.
While Nuvolari never returned to race in La Sarthe and all Sommer’s subsequent attempts were doomed to failure, for Chinetti, it was a quite different story. Nonetheless, the 1933 race became a part of Le Mans legend thanks to these heroes... and a few packs of chewing gum!
