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Mille Miglia
by Dennis David
"In my opinion, the Mille
Miglia was an epoch-making event, which told a
wonderful story. The Miglia created our cars and the
Italian automobile industry. The Mille Miglia
permitted the birth of GT, or grand touring cars,
which are now sold all over the world. The Mille
Miglia proved that by racing over open roads for
1,000 miles, there were great technical lessons to
be learned by the petrol and oil companies and by
brake, clutch, transmission, electrical and lighting
component manufacturers, fully justifying the old
adage that motor racing improves the
breed." ...Enzo Ferrari
Beginning in 1927,
twenty-four Mille Miglias were run before a tragic
accident in 1957, in which the marchese de Portago
was killed, caused the race to be banned.
The story of the Mille
Miglia began in 1921 when the Auto Club di Brescia
organized the first Italian Grand Prix. Seeing the
success of this race the Automobile Club of Milan
built the Autodromo Nazionale Monza and had the 1922
Italian Grand Prix held on their new course. This
outraged the people of Brescia but it was not until
1926 when Aymo Maggi conceived the idea of a road
race for sports cars that they were able to exact
some measure of revenge. This race would run over a
1000-mile course of closed public roads traveled
from Brescia to Rome and back again. In 1927 with
the help influential friends, Aymo Maggi was able to
convince the fascist government to allow the race.
At 9:00 PM in Brescia the cars were flagged off at
one-minute intervals with the smaller, slower cars
leaving first. The numbers on the cars represented
their starting times. What lay ahead of the drivers
was 1000 miles of Italian road good bad and
indifferent. The strategy involved was simple, drive
as fast as you can for as long you can, for this was
a race against the clock. If you were lucky you
would finish among the leaders, if not you might
finish among the rocks. Along the way spectators
gathered by the score to cheer their favorites on,
sometimes nearly inches from the speeding cars. Aymo
Maggi led off the inaugural race but was soon passed
by the Alfa Romeo of Count Brilli/Peri. Leading the
race into Rome they began to be pressured by the OM
of Minoia-Morandi. Feeling the pressure mounting the
Brilli-Peri team overextended their Alfa leaving the
checkpoint at Spoleto and was out of the race. The
first race ended in a brilliant one-two-three for
the Brescia based OM firm. The popularity of the
event helped to spur new road construction. For 1928
the entry list included three Type 35B Bugattis,
including one driven by Nuvolari. After setting the
early pace the strain became too much for the French
cars and one by one they dropped back. Into the lead
moved the Alfa of Campari-Ramponi who lead the OM of
Mazotti-Rosa across the finish line. The next year
saw a repeat performance by the defending champions.
Because of the difficulty of the course it was
assumed that you needed to race it at least four
times to know it well.
The Italian drivers
dominated through the years with some notable
exceptions. The Wall Street crash of 1929 and
subsequent depression forced Mercedes to temporarily
abandon racing. Rudolf Caracciola could not imagine
his career ending just as he was gaining
prominence he was forced to contest the Mille Miglia
as a private entrant. Mercedes would provide
transportation and mechanical support in exchange
for fifty percent of the prize money. For the race,
their support team would consist of three men, a
woman and a car. The car was a SSKL, the L for
leicht (light) that was specially built. Against
them was the Alfa Romeo team, which had over 90
mechanics. Alfred Neubauer, the team manager would
remark that he felt like "Napoleon before the
Battle of Waterloo", but even Napoleon never
had to face such long odds. Neubauer was able to
convince two other mechanics to join them for the
race but he would still be one man short for the
minimum four refueling depots. He finally decided
that the mechanic manning the first stop would have
to race cross-country to the third site during the
race. Against these four stops Alfa Romeo would have
17 fuel and repair depots spread along the course.
Short - handed Caracciola would have to drive the
entire race while a mechanic would be his passenger.
After ten hours of driving and various minor
problems they were in fourth place but the strain of
the race was taking its toll on Caracciola.
Exhausted he told his passenger that he felt that he
must stop rather than risk someone else's life.
Wilhelm Sebastian would here none of this. Hearing
these brave words gave Caracciola new strength and
he began to drive like a man possessed. Fritz Kumpf,
the mechanic who's job it was to drive
cross-country just arrived at the last stop before
the white Mercedes. The morning came but the circuit
was covered with a thick mist. Just ahead of
Caracciola were the three leading Alfas driving
three abreast. Each car had its headlights on and
their combined resources helped light the way.
Caracciola closed up behind the unaware drivers and
when they came up to a sharp bend two of the cars
spun off the road. Caracciola, able to see the
danger, stepped on the accelerator and shot past the
last startled Alfa Romeo. He was now in the lead.
The last pit stop came and went.
Twenty miles from the
finish line they suffered a puncture. Jumping out of
the car before he had even stopped they were able to
replace the tire before any other car could overtake
them. At 7:22 A.M. the lone Mercedes crossed the
finish line and miraculously Caracciola was able to
fight the long odds and claim the first victory for
a foreigner in the Mille Miglia. He would be the
last foreigner to claim victory until 1955.
The 1939 race was marred by
the first major accident involving spectators. In
Bologna, a Lancia went out of control and killed ten
persons including seven children. In the face of
tremendous public outcry over this tragedy the race
was banned the next year. Aymo Maggi was able to get
the governments permission to run a greatly reduced
race over a 104-mile circuit in 1940. This race was
called the Gran Premio di Brescia and would
last nine laps. The event was won by a BMW driven by
the German duo, von Hanstein/Baumer.
After the war the race was
resumed in 1947 and for the next three years was won
by Biondetti with various co-drivers.
In 1953 the great Tazio
Nuvolari had died and the 1954 race route was
modified to pass through his native Mantua. In
remembrance of the greatest racing driver of them
all the thundering echo of race cars would be heard
in his hometown.
In 1955 it was Mercedes
again that would ruin the party. Alfred Neubauer was
there with a team of Juan-Manuel Fangio, Karl Kling,
Hans Herman and Stirling Moss. Moss would be
partnered by the motoring journalist Denis
Jenkinson. Together they developed a plan to map the
entire circuit and record the details on an 18-foot
roll of paper. This was enclosed in a roller device
that would warn the driver not just of obstacles but
also opportunities where they may gain an advantage
such as a straight road after a blind brow. All of
the difficult corners were recorded and given grades
that included saucy ones, dodgy ones and very
dangerous ones. Added to this were a set of hand
signals from Jenkinson the navigator and Moss the
driver.
Moss impressed upon
Jenkinson the importance in not making any recording
errors, to which Jenkinson replied that he need not
worry, as any accident Moss might have would involve
him as well. Still Moss wondered if he would
trust his friend and take a blind brow at 170mph in
the race. He confided in Jenkinson that he might
back off to 160mph, though the reduction of 10mph
would have little effect if they were to crash it
made Moss feel better psychologically.
The tradition of Mille
Miglia told that "he who leads at Rome is never
first home". All was going well except for the
normal bits of excitement here and there that are
even now, part of the "fun" of driving on
Italian roads. All that changed when they came upon
some melted asphalt and almost met their end against
a concrete wall. Only Moss' fantastic skill
saved them. Finally they reached the finish line
back at Brescia and had to wait for Taruffi to
finish before they could be sure of their victory.
Piero Taruffi, a highly skilled driver and engineer
had raced in twelve Mille Miglias without a victory.
News came that Taruffi had dropped out with a broken
oil pipe and the victory was theirs. Their time was
10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds which amounted to
an average speed that was almost 10 mph faster that
the previous course record.
Moss returned to the Mille
Miglia in 1957, again teamed with Jenkinson. This
time they would drive a 400 bhp Maserati that had a
top speed of over 200 mph! Not to be out done,
Ferrari produced a model with almost 450 bhp to be
driven by Collins and Taruffi. The winner surly must
come from one of these three cars. They would be
last to leave Brescia. Seven miles out Moss suffered
a broken brake pedal and his race was done. The race
developed into a duel between Collins and Taruffi
with Collins holding a slight advantage. By the half
way point Collins was able to extend his lead ...
until his differential gave out. Taruffi cheered on
by his countrymen assumed the lead and claimed his
first victory in thirteen attempts. Sadly after the
death of Alfonso de Portago, his co-driver and ten
spectators during the race, the famous Mille Miglia
was abandoned. Recently the race has been recreated
as a vintage car race but the days of flat out
racing along the Italian countryside are over.
Links:
Mille
Miglia by Dennis David
TF Race
stats
Targa
Florio by D. David
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