Two C-4Rs, the coupe and one of the roadsters, were joined on
the grid by the new C-5R “Shark”, so named because
of the visage presented by its jaw-like grille. Phil Walters
and John Fitch were assigned to drive the C-5R, while Briggs
and Bill Spears would again drive the C-4R, and Charles Moran
and John Gordon Benett got the nod for the C-4RK.

Benett had first met Briggs in 1951 at Elkhart Lake where he was
driving a borrowed Allard. Briggs, impressed with Benett’s
talent, had said to him, “We’ve got to get you a ride
in a Cunningham.” Two years later and across the Atlantic,
Benett had his ride. He went on to race for Cunningham for
several years and eventually had a hand in Briggs’ later partnership
with Jaguar.

The Cunningham team had arrived at Le Mans well prepared for almost
any eventuality, even to the extent of having projected the
average speed required to win. What they did not allow for,
however, was Jaguar’s use of the innovative new Dunlop disc
brakes. The Walters/Fitch C-5R’s top speed was higher than
the Jaguars by a wide margin, but the British cars were able
to maintain their velocity much deeper into the corners, thus
erasing the Americans’ advantage. “Long after we started
braking,” Phil Walters said, “the Jags were still
going flat out.” Despite averaging almost eight miles
per hour faster than the previous years’ winners, the Fitch/Walters
car finished third, behind two factory C-Types.

Cunningham and Spears also beat the previous year’s winning time and
finished seventh, with Moran and Benett bringing the coupe
home in tenth for a Team Cunningham top-ten sweep. “Three
cars-third, seventh and tenth-in the top ten at Le Mans,”
Briggs later commented, “I guess that wasn’t too bad.”

Charles Moran, who in 1929 had been the first American to race at
Le Mans, agreed: the seventh place he shared with John Gordon
Benett was his best ever and his final drive in the 24 Hours.