The Bill Boddy report below (written in December 2003) on the 1928 Belgian 24 Hours says two supercharged Alfas were not allowed to start at Le Mans because their bodies did not meet the 4 seater specification. One Alfa 6C 1750 is shown as a reserve that year. It was a DNS to be driven by Ivanowski, Marinoni and Rachevsky. Is it possible that there were two Alfas at LM and they were the two 6C Alfas that ran at the Belgian 24 hours that year with Ivanowski/Marinoni and Rachevsky/Chinetti. The riddle is that the Ivanowski car was the winner at Spa and is shown as a 6C 1500 SS, while the Rachevsky car was supposedly a 6C 1500, which would not have had a supercharger.
Fortunately for the race's reputation, all was normal in 1928. This time 30 cars lined up for the classic Le Mans start, with the drivers sprinting across the road to get the engines going on the starter motors. All, that is, except an Auburn which collided with a Chrysler as they started to move, both having to cease until their damaged mudguards and headlamps had been repaired, to comply with the regulations. As before, the grandstand overlooking all this was brilliantly lit and powerful lamps outlined the pits. Those Britishers who made the journey to Spa must have been disappointed that Sir Henry Birkin's 4.5-litre Bentley had been withdrawn, as it was being prepared for Nurburg where it was the only unsupercharged car to finish, and one of the Alfa Romeos had also defaulted.
Italy was making an impressive bid for an outright win, to make up for the French having banned the supercharged 1.5-litre Alfa Romeos from running at Le Mans as their bodywork was found not quite to comply with the required measurements. It worked. The Russian driver Ivanowski and the Italian Marinoni came home first, in spite of their car's modest engine capacity, 145 miles ahead of the first of two American Chryslers, setting a new record of 1532 miles, at an impressive 63.80mph. They had broken the previous record distance by 105 miles, and had obviously won also the 1.5-litre class, from a Bugatti and a Chenard et Walcker. The Chryslers, five in all, two of them 1927 Le Mans runners, had dominated the 3-litre class, a Georges Irat took the 2-litre section, and an 1100cc Aries did splendidly to finish a place ahead of another 2-litre Georges Irat, and a 750cc Senechal, little known in England, was last of the 15 placed finishers, with 867.3 miles completed.
It had been an eventful and thus interesting struggle, calling for more skill than at Le Mans. Quite early the BNC broke a valve. Both drivers were permitted to work on it at Spa, but in the end they gave up; a supercharger had been added since it ran in the French race, which may have exacerbated the trouble. One Bugatti went out, but after four hours a s/c Bugatti had the lead, Ivanowski's Alfa Romeo in hot pursuit. As darkness began to close in the Alfa took the lead, never to lose it. The challenging Bugatti wore its tyres out, and a different make was hastily found and fitted — shades of the current tyre war! The second Alfa succumbed to what was quoted as broken piston rings.
Edited by cabianca, 29 October 2017 - 21:30.
