1934 24 Hours of Le Mans

The twelfth 24 - hour race at Le Mans, the 12th Grand Prix d' Endurance les 24 Heures du Mans, took place from 16 to June 17, 1934 held at the Circuit des 24 Heures.

The race

To the now high quality of the race to meet in terms of logistics, completely new pit facilities were built in the spring of 1934. The system created space for a maximum of 60 vehicles, each vehicle were two garages. The French oil industry funded a new, designed to the latest state of the art tank system.

The dramatic victory of Tazio Nuvolari in the previous year had caused so much international interest that the starting field rose to 44 participants. From Great Britain came factory teams from Aston Martin, Riley and singer, but all of them were in the smaller classes at the start and thus had no chance of overall victory. 17 vehicles came from France, including five Bugattis and an old Lorraine -Dietrich B3- sixth The Tracta team was the last time the 24 -hour race at the start. Favorites were again the Alfa Romeo 8C, all of which were used this year by private teams.

At the start, Raymond Sommer took the lead, who dominated the race in the first hour before the three other Alfas. Summer fell but after nearly two hours by engine fire. By Sunday morning, the two British Alfas were eliminated, so that the superior Chinetti / Étancelin - car was in the lead. Also, all five Bugattis had long failed. Chinettis lead on two Rileys was so great that the Italians spent in a rather contemplative journey the last two hours. The slow driving yet led to a certain victory and compensated the Italians for the narrow defeat of the previous year. However, the distance record could not be so broken.

Results

Pilot after Nations

  • Oldest Driver: United Kingdom Auguste Bertelli (54 years )
  • Youngest Driver: France Raymond Sommer (28 years)

Final ranking

Only in the message list

Here are the teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the competition, but it did not participate for various reasons.

Class winner

Race data

  • Reported: 52
  • Starter: 44
  • Weather during the race weekend: hot and sunny
  • Distance: 13.492 km
  • Distance of the winning team: 2886.938 km
  • Winners section: 120.289 km / h
  • Fastest race lap: Philippe Étancelin - Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 ( # 9) - 5.41.000 = 142.437 km / h
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