The legendary 1955 Mille Miglia rediscovered: new photos of Moss and Jenks’ win unearthed
Seventy years ago this month Stirling Moss and Motor Sport’s Denis Jenkinson set off on one of the most famous races in history and arguably this magazine’s finest hour. Now, rediscovered images cast fresh light on that epic drive
On their marks, Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson look to the raised flag, ready to let rip from the starting ramp. Over the Mercedes 300 SLR’s hindquarters, team chief Alfred Neubauer looms with hands on hips. Down on the right, head peeping over a policeman’s shoulder, engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut looks up with pride. This masterpiece faces its finest 10 hours, in the fastest hands
Giorgio Nada
The greatest story ever told,” we proclaimed in 2005 on the 50th anniversary of Stirling Moss’s epochal victory on the Mille Miglia, and its subsequent capture – in neat long-hand, on lined paper – by the short, bespectacled, bearded navigator who had been sat beside him all the way from Brescia to Rome and back to Brescia again.
Somehow, 20 more years have since passed and it’s now 70 since Moss and our own Denis Jenkinson ripped through the records in their tear-up around Italy. Five years on from Stirling’s departure from our world, 29 since Jenks’s, the feat still resonates, and the work – With Moss in the Mille Miglia – is still the greatest story, above. It’s also one that, even now, keeps on giving.
Alberto Sorlini was a photographer from Brescia who accepted a commission from the race organisers to snap images, before and after the start. Some we’ve seen before; others, happily and presented here, are much less familiar. They capture beautifully the pre-race bustle, the sense of anticipation; the heady drama at the flat-to-the-floor finish; and the sheer elation of our heroes, immediately in the wake of their achievement and a year later when they were suited and booted to receive their awards.
The magic of the 1955 Mille Miglia never wears thin, and with the help of such images from Sig Sorlini, our heroes never grow old. Jenks put it best (but then of course he did). “I had had the unique experience of being with Stirling Moss throughout his epic drive, sitting beside him while he worked as I have never seen anyone work before in my life, and harder and longer than I ever thought it was possible for a human being to do so,” he wrote to conclude his 10,000-word opus. “It was indeed a unique experience, the greatest experience in the whole of the 22 years during which I have been interested in motor racing, an experience that was beyond my wildest imagination, with a result that even now I find extremely hard to believe.
“After previous Mille Miglias I have said ‘He who wins it is some driver, and the car he uses is some sports car.’ I now say it again with the certain knowledge that I know what I’m talking about this time.” DS
To read Denis Jenkinson’s full, original story in all its considerable glory, log on to motorsportmagazine.com, go to the archive and search for the June 1955 issue.
A year after the event, on April 26, 1956, Moss and Jenks beam with the Coppa Haig (the whisky brand was a sponsor) at the prize-giving ceremony. No time for such formalities on race day. They are back to recce in a Maserati for the 1956 race. Moss reports illness in his diary, but doesn’t Jenks scrub up well?
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Pristine 300 SLRs in Brescia. A mechanic sits where history will be made in Moss’s ‘722’, hard behind Hans Herrmann’s ‘704’ – but he’s not steering the big four-spoke wheel. The cars are on a shared trailer. Note the grab-handle ahead of the navigator’s seat
After the grind of recce laps, two written-off cars, scribbled note taking, assiduous transcription and months of no-stone-unturned preparation, finally it is nearly time. It’s just ahead of 7.22am on a bright May 1, but crowds have still gathered despite the early hour to witness the field, including Moss and Jenks, roar from the Brescia start. As Jenks reveals, team chief Neubauer has told Moss to give it “plenty of throttle… for Herrmann had nearly fluffed his take-off”
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Jenks is just out of frame as race co-founder Count Aymo Maggi escorts Moss from the finish. “I’m so happy that we’ve proved that a Britisher can win the Mille Miglia, and that the legend ‘he who leads at Rome never leads at Brescia’ is untrue,” he’s told Jenks. “We’ve rather made a mess of the record, haven’t we?”
Jenks raises an arm as Moss powers to the finish still north of 100mph. “Do you think we’ve won?” Stirling will ask his friend. Without knowledge of Taruffi’s retirement and that Fangio is behind them, they can’t be sure what they have done
Thumb up from sooty-faced Jenks as wonderful reality sinks in for the duo. Their total time was 10hr 7min 48sec, at a speed a shade under 98mph – their average for the 87 miles from Cremona back to Brescia, a ripping 123mph. Count Maggi looks proud to grip Stirl’s arm
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Stirl takes a swig as girlfriend Sally Weston is pressed against him in the melee. “The ensuing crush amid the wildly enthusiastic crowds was harder to bear than the whole of the 1000-mile grind we had just completed,” wrote Jenks
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Back at the prize giving in 1956. Spoils include a rifle! The gun is a Beretta, the Brescian firearms maker founded in 1526 that is still in business today
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