page_title: 1923 24 Hours of Le Mans
section_title: Start
hierarchical_section_title: 1923 24 Hours of Le Mans / Race / Start
caption_attribution_description: English: Car Endurance Race 1923, “24 Heures de Mans”
context_page_description: The 1923 24 Hours of Le Mans, officially the 24 Hours Grand Prix of Endurance, was the inaugural Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 26 and 27 May 1923.
  A strong field of twenty manufacturers entered, all from France aside from a single Bentley from Great Britain and a pair of Excelsiors from Belgium. In a rain-soaked race it was the Chenard-Walcker team and the Bentley that set the pace, chased by the smaller 2-litre Bignan. The Bentley was delayed by stones smashing a headlight and puncturing the fuel tank, and in the end the Chenard-Walckers of René Léonard / André Lagache and Christian Dauvergne / Raoul Bachmann had a comfortable 1–2 victory.
  However, there was no official victory for them as this event was the first part of three consecutive annual races, for the Rudge-Whitworth Triennial Cup, where the ultimate winner would be the manufacturer whose best car exceeded their nominated target distance by the greatest margin. So it was the small 1.1-litre Salmson of Desvaux/Casse that took the lead in that competition. It had completed 98 laps, 46 over its 52-lap target.
  The race was also an excellent exhibition of machine endurance and reliability.
context_section_description: In an inauspicious omen, the early summertime start of the first 24 Hours of Le Mans at 4 pm began just after a hailstorm, in cold rain and wind. The honour to drop the flag to start the race fell to Monsieur Carpé, the ACO chief timekeeper. The big Belgian Excelsiors were overtaken from the start by Robert Bloch's Lorraine-Dietrich. What was supposed to be an "endurance trial" soon became a race along the narrow country roads.
  It was perhaps surprising then that throughout the rain that lasted the first four hours, there were no major incidents. It was soon apparent that the quickest cars were the Chenard-Walcker team, the Bentley, one of the Excelsiors, and one of the 2-litre Bignans. The first pitstops for fuel and driver-changes did not start until after 7 pm. The 38-year-old Lagache and veteran Dauvergne bought their Chenard-Walckers in with a good lead. The Belgian-driven Excelsior gradually lost time with its sluggish acceleration rate. After a brief respite the rain and wind returned making for very difficult night-driving, especially as most cars chose not to run with their hoods up, as it compromised top speed and fuel economy. Most drivers were not wearing goggles despite the rain and all the mud-splatter coming off the cars ahead of them.
caption: Start of the race
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2012:03:28 10:53:43", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7686", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "992", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "600"}