He played semipro ball for a factory team before joining the Black Barons in 1944.
Citing budgetary concerns, Peugeot, Audi's primary rival, did not field a factory team for the race.
He had long resented not being given the chance to run the Peugeot factory team himself, as the Joest team of Germany runs the Audi factory team.
But his roommate, a 1963 Shelby Cobra 289 factory team car, has become something of a conundrum.
"It gave us a chance to be a factory team, to start with a blank computer screen," Davis said.
In 2007, he read an interview with the Soap Factory team in a local paper, midway through their first Haunted Basement production.
Some of the fastest times on the circuit, however, came from Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, of the Mercedes factory team, driving cars from the 2011 season.
His success led to an invitation to join the Mugher Cement Factory team, coached by Tolosa Kotu, then the Ethiopian national marathon coach.
The third season of the all-electric Formula E championship will see a full factory team from Jaguar return to major motorsport.
The factory team is not a priority for the French automaker this year, as PSA Peugeot-Citroën tries to reaffirm its market position in Europe and abroad.
The BMW, believed to have been used by the factory team during its Sidecar World Championship winning season in 1954, sold for $148,000, including sales commissions.
