1955 Mille Miglia

2015 marks the anniversary of quite a few significant motor sports milestones … the 50th anniversary Ferrari’s last win at the 24 Heures du Mans, the 50th anniversary of Jim Clark’s win the Formula 1 World Championship, and his win at the Indianapolis 500 (in a green machine!)

Yet I believe the most important by far is the 60th anniversary of Stirling Moss’ along with navigator Denis Jenkinson’s (Jenks) record-breaking win of the 1955 Mille Miglia.

Stirling Moss was part of the powerful Mercedes-Benz motor sports team for 1955, managed by the clever Alfred Neubauer.

They had a fabulous car in the form of the 300 SLR, but that alone did not guarantee success in this annual 1000-mile race held on public roads.

The Italian racers had the advantage of knowing ever inch of the route; Mercedes-Benz had to find a way to equalize the odds.

Moss and Jenks practiced the route a few times weeks before the actual race, with Jenks writing out pace notes all along the way. Mercedes then pasted the notes together into a 15.5-foot roll, which they encased in a glass-fronted, watertight box, permitting Jenks to view and communicate his notes via hand signals to Moss.

Pen&ink, arcrylic and markers on gray archival stock 11.75"x 9" (29.8cm X 22.8cm) © Paul Chenard 2015 

Commissioned piece. Available as a limited edition.

This allowed Moss to drive flat out for the entire race, depending on his trusty navigator for guidance.

They arrived at the finish line in Brescia in a record time of 10 hours 7 minutes 48 seconds, over a half hour ahead of the second-place finisher Juan Manuel Fangio, also racing for Mercedes-Benz.

This amazing record still stands, for the race was shut down following the 1957 Mille Miglia where driver Alfonso de Portago crashed his Scuderia Ferrari 335 S, killing himself, his co-driver (navigator) Edmund Nelson and nine spectators.

The 1955 Mille Miglia: German Power, British Might

Post-WWII, Mercedes-Benz was busy digging itself out of the ravages of the war, and trying to regain the presence as a constructor of cars of quality.

They developed the W194 300 SL Gullwing sports car for the 1952 season, winning the 24 heurs du Mans and La Carrera Panamericana.

For 1954, they came with a full force of Formula 1 and Sports Car/GT racers and dominated the season.

For 1955, they fully developed their racing sports cars, closely based on their Formula 1 racers.

For the Mille Miglia, they had a team of 4 new 300 SLR's to do battle against the platoon of Ferraris.

The drivers were (Sir) Stirling Moss, with his navigator journalist/racer Denis Jenkinson, Hans Herrmann, with his navigator, and Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling, both sans navigators.

For their race, Moss and Jenkinson practiced by driving the whole route, with Jenkinson making pace notes all along the way.

The Mercedes-Benz team glued the pace notes together into one long scroll, and installed it in a waterproof windowed box so that Jenkinson could read them out loud to Moss en route.

Jenkinson’s pace notes allowed Moss to drive the whole race flat out, and they won in the unheard-of record time of 10 hours 07 mins 48 secs, with an average speed of 157.650 km/h (97.96 mph), all of it done on public roads!

It was the second time that Mercedes-Benz won the event, the first time being Rudolf Caracciola’s 1931 win.