Clive Dunfee

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Bentley Speed ​​Six Old Number One; Clive Dunfee's rebuilt accident car in Brooklands in 1932
Blackboard with information about Old Number One

Beresford Clive Dunfee (born June 18, 1904 in Wandsworth , London , † September 24, 1932 in Brooklands ) was a British stockbroker and racing car driver .

family

Clive Dunfee was the third eldest son of Colonel Vickers Dunfee , an officer in the London Police Department . His older brother Jack (1901-1979) was a racing driver like Clive and, as a partner of Glen Kidston in the Bentley Speed ​​Six, reached second place overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1929 . His younger brother Geoffrey (1912-1944) was an aviator in the Royal Air Force during World War II . After he did not return from an assignment around August 1944, he was later pronounced dead. Nothing is known about the eldest brother Vickers .

From 1930 until his death, Clive Dunfee was married to British actress Jane Baxter .

Racing career

Clive Dunfee, a stockbroker by profession , was, like his brother Jack, one of the Bentley Boys in the 1920s . His greatest successes he celebrated on the oval track of Brooklands , a track where he was killed later. In 1929 he finished second overall in a Bentley Speed ​​Six with Sammy Davis in the 500-mile race and in 1930 also second in the 2 × 12-hour race . In 1931 he and Cyril Paul won the 500 mile race on a Speed ​​Six reported by Woolf Barnato .

In 1930 he started in the 24-hour race of Le Mans. Teammate at Bentley was regular partner Sammy Davis. The race ended prematurely due to an accident.

Death in Brooklands

On September 24, 1932, he and his brother Jack drove the 500-mile Brooklands race in the Bentley Speed ​​Six Old Number One . His wife Jane watched the race from the Bentley pits. After his brother had contested the first part of the race, Clive Dunfee took over the Bentley in fourth place. The vehicle traveling ahead of him a few minutes after the driver change, tried Dunfee Alfa Romeo 8C of Earl Howe to pass on the steep banking outside. The right rear wheel of the Bentley came over the boundary. The car overturned on the edge of the track and fell between trees on a path under the curve. Dunfee was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene of the accident. The badly damaged Bentley was completely restored in the 1950s and is now owned by a US collector.

statistics

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1930 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Bentley Motors Ltd. Bentley Speed ​​Six United KingdomUnited Kingdom Sammy Davis failure accident

literature

  • Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909413-06-3 .

Web links

Commons : Clive Dunfee  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About Geoffrey Dunfee
  2. ↑ Brooklands 500 Mile Race, 1929
  3. ^ 2 × 12-hour Brooklands races in 1930
  4. ↑ Brooklands 500 Mile Race, 1931
  5. ^ Brooklands 500 Mile Race, 1932
  6. ↑ Pictures of the accident and the destroyed vehicle
personal data
SURNAME Dunfee, Clive
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British racing car driver
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Wandsworth , London
DATE OF DEATH September 24, 1932
Place of death Brooklands