The 1929 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 7th Grand Prix of Endurance that took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe on 15 and 16 June 1929. In the most dominant display in the race to date, Bentley achieved a comprehensive victory taking the first four places on distance. Bentley director Woolf Barnato repeated his victory of the previous year, co-driven this time by fellow Bentley Boy Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin. They had led from start to finish, setting a new distance record and lap record. The race was relatively quiet, without serious incident, aside from a fuel fire burning Stutz driver Édouard Brisson. Half of the reduced field had retired by dawn on the Sunday and the Bentley team was able to stage a formation finish for its four finishers. Regulations The international regulations remained unchanged. However, for its part, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) decreed that 2-seater cars could now be no bigger than 1000cc (either supercharged or not) and the 3-seat dispensation for 1500cc cars was removed after two years. This year Shell petrol was the official fuel for all cars. Residents of southern Le Mans city were successful in petitioning the council. A new by-pass road, the Rue de Circuit, was built 600 metres ahead of the Pontlieue hairpin at the edge of the city. It reduced the track length by 922 metres from to . The road surface experiments continued on the track. The left-hand turn approaching Arnage was partially re-surfaced with bricks and named Indianapolis, after the famous American “Brickyard”. A new spectator area was opened between the two corners. Also, many roadside trees had their trunks painted white for visibility and all the corners were signposted. The media centre was also enlarged to include six phone booths and a telegraph table. Entries The global recession was hitting the auto-industry hard and only 26 cars made it to the start-line. For the first time French cars were in the minority with none in line for outright distance honours. It became a three-nation entry list with cars only from France, Great Britain and the United States. In lieu of a lack of direct manufacturer support, more privateer entries arrived. Supercharged engines were very popular with ten cars having ‘blown’ engines. Dunlop Tyres now shod all the cars in the field. Of the sixteen places open in the Biennial Cup final, thirteen were