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In this extract from his new book, 24 Hours: 100 Years of Le Mans, Richard Williams retells the ramshackle inaugural raceThe first 24 Hours of Le Mans began at 4pm on 26 May 1923. Since the clocks would go forward at 11pm, the last occasion on which France would observe a shift to summer time, it was due to finish the following afternoon at five.The date had been chosen in the hope that spring would guarantee good weather, but as the cars lined up on a two-by-two grid the circuit was struck by a sudden and vicious hailstorm. The drivers would endure heavy rain, gloom and gusty winds through the first four hours; none of the entries was equipped with windscreen wipers, an invention already in use in the United States but yet to be adopted in Europe. Continue reading...