pzu,
Only the most senior among us will recall the MacRobertson UK-Australia international Air Race (1934). The winner was a DH "Comet" special racer, flown by Scott and Campbell-Black.
But in many peoples' eyes, the real winner (on Handicap) was a perfectly ordinary KLM DC-2 (forerunner of the very similar, but fatter DC-3). Flown by Captains Parmentier and Moll, it came in second.
D.