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The ACO Centenary Race for pre-War cars, run on the Saturday morning of this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, was one of the most closely-fought battles ever held on the full 13.65km circuit. On pole position was the Alta Sports of Luke Stevens and, in second place on the grid – just a few hundredths of a second behind – was the Talbot 105 Alpine of Gareth Burnett. From the outset, the two cars (both owned by John Ruston) ran neck and neck, the lead repeatedly switching between them for the entirety of the 40-minute race.
As the leading cars exited the final corner and headed for the chequered flag, the Talbot was marginally ahead but the 2-litre supercharged Alta was closing rapidly. There was a tremendous cheer from the crowd and from the pit-lane as they crossed the line with scarcely a hair’s breadth between the two, but the Talbot managed to hold on to first place by a mere 0.06 seconds. Although relegated to a nail-bitingly close second place, the Alta, skilfully driven by current European Caterham Champion Luke Stevens, took the fastest lap of the race, at 6min 3.27sec.
It wasn’t just a tight finish at the front of the field, however. The Bentley 4¼-litre of Bob Gilbert came in third, with Mark Butterworth’s Lagonda V12 Le Mans only just pipping Holly Mason’s Aston Martin Ulster, LM21, to fourth place – by an even smaller margin than the leading two cars. Albert Otten’s BMW 328 took sixth place, and third in class. Elsewhere in the field, class winners included Mike Preston in his Bugatti T50, and Jock Mackinnon, in the Bentley 3-litre he had driven to Le Mans all the way from Edinburgh.
“The reaction of the crowd said it all,” commented organiser Duncan Wiltshire of Motor Racing Legends. “If any of the younger spectators had initially thought historic events might be slow or uninteresting compared with the modern 24 Hours, they soon changed their minds. The grandstand spectators stood and cheered at the excitement of the close racing. The spectacle was enough to ensure that the ACO Centenary Races generated 2½ hours of live coverage across Europe on Motors TV.”
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