The 2013 Mille Miglia to Argentina. Where Juan Manuel Fangio was unable to succeed back in the ’50s, his countrymen Juan Tonconogy and Guillermo Berisso did so almost 60 years later. They won the much more sedate regularity commemorative event last May in their Bugatti T40, which was built the year the race began, 86 years ago.
For years, observers have got it wrong. They said Fangio didn’t like road racing, which is why he never won either the Mille Miglia or the Targa Florio, in both of which he came 2nd. But the five-time Formula One World Champion often said he loved that branch of the sport—he began his distinguished career as a highly successful long distance road racer in South America—and attributed his lack of success at such European events to bad luck and breakdowns.
Tonconogy and Berisso led the 2013 event for most of its 1,000 miles from Brescia to Rome and back. They took the lead after the first 16 regularity tests before the initial overnight stop at Ferrara, and kept it all the way to Rome and back to victory in Brescia. Second were Italians Giordano Mozzi and Mark Gessler in a 1933 Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Gran Sport and 3rd Giordano Moceri-Tiberio Cavalleri driving a 1933 Aston Martin Le Mans.
This year, the race was under new management by the Brescia Automobile Club and the newly formed company 1000 Miglia srl, who increased the number of entrants from 384 to 415. The event was organized and run by a total of 2,000 people, including 300 timekeepers and marshals, as well as 20 clerks of the course. A total of 50 policemen traveled with the 2013 Mille Miglia, and about 1,000 local officers were involved, belonging to the 192 municipalities through which the race passed.
The breakdown of the 415 entrants is impressive, as they included 35 Mercedes-Benz, 33 Alfa Romeos, 26 Fiats, 25 Lancias, 24 Ferraris, 23 Jaguars, 22 Porsches, 20 Aston Martins, 17 BMWs, 17 Bugattis and 16 Maseratis.
Among the 76 cars that actually competed in the Mille Miglia, between 1927 and 1957, this year were Fangio’s 1955 300 SLR, driven by ex-Formula One star David Coulthard and 1940 winner Baron Husche von Hanstein’s BMW 328 with Hanns Werner Wirth at the wheel.
They all came from a total of 31 countries, with no fewer than 135 from Germany, 87 from the UK and 27 from the United States.
Showbiz folks were there in force, even though it poured with rain for much of the event, with triple Oscar winner and star of Steven Spielberg’s latest movie, Lincoln, Daniel Day Lewis, at the wheel of a 1953 Jaguar XK 120 with film producer Jim Gianopolous in the passenger seat. Male model David Gandy, famous for his Dolce&Gabbana advertisements, was chauffeuring Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon’s wife Yasmine in his Jaguar XK120 OTS. Even octogenarian actress Gina Lollobrigida turned out to see what was going on.
Making his Mille Miglia debut was Matteo Marzotto, nephew of 1950 and 1953 winner the late Giannino Marzotto, president of fashion house Vionnet, who competed in a 1937 Fiat 1500 6C Sport. He said, “This is my first Mille Miglia, and it also happens to be the year in which seven decades have now passed since Giannino scored his second victory. I was very close to him, and can only imagine that he is laughing up there while playfully dumping buckets of water on us.”
The race didn’t go well for 10-time winner Giuliano Canè, who was competing without his wife Lucia Galliani for the first time, pairing with Klaus Peter Reichle in a 1927 Bugatti T37 Gran Prix. He was optimistic at the start, saying, “The Mille Miglia always gives one such a unique and incredible feeling. Each time, it’s almost as if it were the first.” He eventually came 8th.
It rained so hard and continuously on May 16 that scrutineering had to be postponed, but that didn’t stop the Ferrari Tribute of 75 of Maranello’s best preceding the race, starting from old Mille Miglia stomping ground of Desenzano. The race itself began on time, with a Brescia-built 1930 OM 665 SS driven by Marcus Brennecke and Wolf Schniegel first down the Viale Venezia starting ramp at 6:45 p.m. precisely, the remaining 414 flagged away every 20 seconds after that. The route took them along the banks of Lake Garda to Verona, Montecchio, Vicenza and Padua before reaching Ferrara for their first overnight stop.
Next morning it was on through Emilia, Tuscany, Umbria, Assisi and Spoleto to enter the Italian capital along Via Flaminia Nuova. In the city, the cars were given an on-stage presentation at the Mille Miglia village at Castel Sant’Angelo, this segment with guest of honor Jessica Rossi, the 2012 London Olympics shooting gold medalist and the 2013 Mille Miglia’s testimonial.
After the presentation, the cars paraded through the streets of Rome between the Tiber River, Circus Maximus, the Colosseum and Via Veneto.
After another overnight, and this incredible “mobile museum” made its way back to the Brescia finish. — Robert Newman
