As of  29 January 2002, about 2½ years after we first published this photograph!!!, we have it on good authority from Carlos Walmsley in Buenos Aires that the man third from the left is in fact Rodriguez Larreta who was a good friend of Señor Alzaga - not A. Lavete as previously stated.

1923 was the year that five Bugattis ran at Indianapolis, only one finishing. The drivers and their placings were as follows: Alzaga 6 laps broken con rod, Raganti 19 laps fuel tank failure, Zborowski 41 laps broken con rod, De Vizcaya 165 laps broken con rod, Cystria finished ninth. Tom Milton picked up the first prize of $20,000 averaging 90.095 miles per hour in 5 hours, 29 minutes 50.17 seconds over the total 500 miles race distance. The Bugattis were absent the following year.

Dateline August 2002 - still the correspondence goes on!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kid/Margarida" <abuarque@esquadro.xxxxxxxxxx.br>
To: Brooklands Society.
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 10:43 PM
Subject: Alzaga, Zborowski, Larreta and Gallop

Dear Sirs:

In the text of the picture showing the 4 above mentioned persons, published in your fine site, the name of the Argentinean competition driver Raul Riganti is misspelled as Raganti.

Raul Riganti ("Polenta") (1898- ?) was one of the best pilots from Argentine in the 1920s and 1930s. He and two other fine pilots from Argentine, Ernesto Blanco and Antonio Gaudino, the latter an Italian-born migrated to that country, were called "Los Tres Mosqueteros" ("The Three Musketeers"). Riganti competed in his country with success, and abroad without much success, in the Indianapolis 500 (1923, retired, breakage; 1933 completed in 14th place; 1940, retired, crash), as well as in the Grand Prix of  Rio de Janeiro, at the gruelling street/road Circuit of Gavea  (1933, retired, breakage; 1934, ditto; 1937, ditto).

I hope these information will be of your interest.

Sincerely yours,

Antonio Carlos Buarque de Lima
Rio de Janeiro, RJ - Brazil.

An amazing photograph. Without the internet it may have never been seen in the UK.

COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT 18TH DECEMBER 1999
Congratulations Howard Stockley of Alcester Warwickshire whose name was the one to be drawn out of the hat and who answered as follows.
'Douglas Hawkes drove the Bentley in 1922 at Indianapolis. He finished 13th out of 27 and the car was finished in silver [vide Indianapolis Chronicle by Dick Popely p29]
'Gazette' excellent reading!

David Burgess-Wise provided even more information:
'The 182 cu in "Bentley Special" (chassis #94) in the 1922 Indianapolis 500 (race no 22) was driven by Douglas Hawkes started 19th and finished 13th at an average of 74.95 mph. It was the slowest of the finishers to complete the full 200 laps. Jimmy Murphy's winning Duesenberg - the winner of the 1921 French GP subsequently fitted with a Miller engine, averaged 94.48 mph.

Many thanks to all those who entered - every single entrant gave the correct answer and congratulations to Howard Stockley - the £25 voucher is winging its way to you in the Christmas post at this very moment.

Watch out for our new competition in the next Brooklands Society Gazette - the exclusive magazine which no true gentleman enthusiast should be without.

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