Our friend Steve Silverstein is an acknowledged racing Sunbeam Alpine authority, so when someone comes up with a mystery car, he usually gets the call.
He got the call last weekend, with a batch of photos of an Alpine someone has owned since ’85. “It was a race car that he had worked on in 1968 as a teenager. He didn’t know the history prior to ’67, other than it and another Alpine race car were on display at a Ring Free Oil distributor’s facility.”
It was worth the research: “It turns out that it was the Alpine, one of two, that Ring Free sponsored to run the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1966. These two Alpines were driven by all-female teams. Janet Gutherie, Donna Mae Mims and Suzy Dietrich drove one car and the other was driven by Smokey Drolett and Rosemary Smith the British Rally driver.” That appears to be this car, which completed the 24 Hours to finish 30th overall, two places ahead of the Mims/Guthrie/Dietrich car.
Those are some serious names, but their 24 Hours car had been forgotten for decades. It’s in traditional Alpine racing livery today and clearly restored, but still has its #42 intact–we’re assuming the #80 car was the other entry. Monterrey Historics, anyone?