The early favourites were the Chenard-Walckers, with their experienced drivers, best-drilled pit crew and four-wheel braking system – a lack of which severely disadvantaged John Duff in the Bentley, although he and the blue Bignans chasing his tail were still in with a shout of victory.

Stints began to end around 7pm, as drivers refilled with fuel and oil, handed over to their co-driver and entered the ‘hotel’ of damper maker Hartford to be gratefully regaled with onion soup, roast chicken and champagne.

It stopped raining as darkness fell about 8pm but the headlights weren’t similarly merciful, with a third of the cars losing time due to electrical or acetylene-gas lamp issues within a couple of hours.

The dark also caused one of the Excelsiors to go off and bury itself in sand, taking two hours to dig out; then Duff came inches from a nasty crash as a Bignan’s rear tyre burst right in front of him.