Joe Hurwich on the 2014 Mille Miglia

Story by Joe Hurwich

From the Archives, July 2024

The Mille Miglia (1000 Miglia) is or should be a bucket list item for all car guys. I have been fortunate to participate 5 times now, including June 2024. This year the event was held from June 11 to June 15, and joining me as my co-driver was a good friend and avid Alfa Romeo driver, Mike Ingegno. We made a good team and switched often between driving and navigating. For those who don’t know, navigating is probably harder than driving.

For those who don’t know much about it, this was a 1,000-mile race across Italy which ran from 1927 to 1957. Most of you have by now watched the movie Ferrari which centers around the 1957 event which was the last true race. The Italian government stopped the event due to a horrible accident killing spectators and the driver. It was started up in 1977 as a “regularity rally.” Basically, this is an event not based on speed but based on accuracy of driving skills. Participation is limited to cars produced no later than 1957, which had actually been in the original race or a model of which participated in the original race.

The route is a round trip from Brescia to Rome and is similar to that of the original race, maintaining the point of departure/arrival in Viale Venezia in Brescia. The original race was a one day event but is now five days of rallying.

This is a terrific event with millions watching and cheering from the side of the road, with beautiful scenery, exquisite cities and great camaraderie. However, there is no part of the 1000 Miglia that is considered “easy” because it demands total concentration and physical resilience of the crew and mechanical durability of the cars for 15 to 16 hour days and a total time of 58 hours on the road. This year we covered 1,320 miles, with approximately 150 scoring opportunities, and 431 entries. I finished this year, as I have done each year I participated, this time in my 1931 Aston Martin Le Mans. Remember that all of the cars are on “Medicare” and this year 15% of the entries did not finish.

I drove with a group from Netherlands, the Houtkamp Collection, who had six teams of two mechanics per truck. They supported 35 cars. Twice a day they set up a tent on side of road (pit stop) for checkups and work overnight for major repairs. If you breakdown on course, they send one of their trucks to you to make fixes if possible. They are great, only one of their cars didn’t finish. We had no breakdowns, just regular fluid checks, but did have a scare with noise from the transmission which just turned out to be low gear oil. I take a kit of parts sent by Ecurie Bertelli including hoses, spark plugs, coil, spare innertube, wires, etc. but to be honest I don’t look in the bag because I don’t want to know what could go wrong!

Over 1,000 staff keep this event running smoothly, with 2,000 volunteers, 400 local police, 1,200 marshals, and 60 motorcycle police that followed us the entire route. The carabinieri keep us moving by stopping traffic at red lights and splitting the lanes allowing us to drive down the center of two lane roads. Unlike US drivers, the Italians cheer us on while we do this, even though it makes their morning or afternoon commute that much worse.

This year’s event traveled counterclockwise from Brescia down the west side of Italy to Rome, returning to Brescia via the east side of the country. The 1000 Miglia is known as both “the most beautiful race in the world” and “the longest one lap race.”

On Day 1 we travelled through towns including Bergamo (a UNESCO site), Novara and Vercelli (European rice capital) to Torino. Along the way we skirted Milano and passed through 1000 years of history. Each town welcomed us in its town square with thousands of bystanders, gift baskets of products from their region and occasionally a band with the mayor shaking hands with the drivers. Bystanders frequently wanted to slap hands with drivers moving at 10-15 mph.

Day 2 saw us travelling through Genova, La Speza to Viarregio following miles of beautiful beaches along the Mediterranean. This included another UNESCO site and the mountain peaks along Massa including the Fiallo Pass.

Day 3 headed inland to Rome for 15 hours via the historic walled city of Lucca, including a drive on top of the wall, usually restricted to walking and biking, but for the 1000 Miglia we drove. We then travelled through many other cities until we arrived in Rome in the evening, tired but excited. We had a motorcade through Rome including around the Coliseum – by the way, showing the importance of this event, the motorcade streets were closed to all but the Mille cars. The day included unbelievable vistas of sea, nature and history and a long drive past Europe’s largest lake, Bolsena. We also drove on narrow walking streets through many small villages.

The 4th leg from Rome to Bologna, another 15 1/2 hours, passed through Amelia, the Chianti region, Orvieto, Prato, Siena and Solomeo. Amelia, founded in 1,134 BC, still has much Roman history, and was a highlight along with a stop in Piazza al Campo in Siena and more UNSECO sites. The day finished with a drive over mountain passes including the Raticosa Pass and the famous Futa Pass, at over 1,000 meters high.

The 5th and final leg, a short 7.5-hour sprint back to Brescia, included Ferrara (another UNESCO site), Lake Garda and other small towns. Driving along the coast of Garda is spectacular with bars on one side of the road and the lake on the other. Reach out of your car and someone will probably offer you a glass of sparkling wine or beer.

As we took the checkered flag and went over the finish ramp at Viale Venezia, we realized that we had completed something that very few have had the privilege to do. We took our cars through towns too numerous to count along the coasts of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas and over the tallest mountains in central Italy-not an easy task for cars of this age.

My 1931 Aston Martin Le Mans performed beautifully, despite not really having any suspension system or windows to protect us on rainy days. Yes, it rained two days but temperatures were fortunately only in the 80s this year. Will I do it again? Each year, I have said never again, it’s terrific but too hard on my body and each year when December comes around I forget the difficulties and remember all of the good parts and sign up again! Let’s wait and see.

Friends along the Way