The adventure begins

Celebrations of Life and Racing:

Almost ten years before the movie, I created a bucket list. In the top five- to

attend the most beautiful automobile race in the world, the Mille Miglia [MM].  It is a three day thousand mile race through seven of the most beautiful regions in Italy in some of the most important cars manufactured from 1927-1957.

 ENZO FERRARI’s COMMENT REGARDING MM:

When I talk about the Mille Miglia, I feel quite moved, for it played such a big part in my life. I knew it as a driver, a team director and a constructor ... and was always an admirer of its champions. In fact, the Mille Miglia not only provided enormous technical advances during its three decades, it really did breed champions.

I was present at every one of the twenty-four Mille Miglias that were run and was numbed by the tragic accident in 1957 when the marchese de Portago was killed driving one of my cars, causing the race to be banned.

In my opinion, the Mille Miglia was an epoch-making event, which told a wonderful story. The Mille 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.

  COMMENDATORE ENZO FERRARI

 I originally heard about the race from a  fortunate neighbor who told me about his adventure where he flew his multimillion dollar 1920 something Supercharged Bentley to Italy to participate in a three day 1000 mile race through seven of the most beautiful regions in Italy. I knew it was race that I desperately wanted to attend but probably never thought I had a flying chance to actually participate in. I have always had lofty goals but never so high as to first buy a + million dollar car, secure a highly coveted entry, fly it to Italy along with a mechanic, and all of the other complicated logistics of driving a fifty plus year old car in a 1000 mile endurance race in one of the most beautiful parts of the world! So how did it all happen? How did I become an official entry in the most coveted race in the world with entry car number 650?

MM Emblem

First, like all things - timing, luck and the assertive pursuit of lofty goals takes the blame! I am on the board of my daughter’s high school and chairman of the dreaded development committee (ask for cash). Mir and I hosted a party at our house for the top donors of the school.  One of the guests that I greeted at the door had a sweater with the distinctive Mille Miglia emblem on it.

I promptly asked if he had ever been to the race and he told me he has raced in it several times and actually took second in 2010.  After he noticed my over exuberance about the subject matter, he further explained that he was on the organizing committee of the race event. He explained that last year the race organizers had granted, as a tribute to both Enzo Ferrari and Ferrari's contribution to Italian racing, 90 coveted slots to race "modern" Ferrari's (1958-2011) in the Mille Miglia. Then the bomb- he said that he had access to one of those slots and would be willing to allow me to take one! One problem- I don't own a Ferrari. Of course, sensing my deep enthusiasm for this event,  he had a quick solution- I could join his MM race team as the Team had a source where I could rent a Ferrari for the 10 days necessary for prep, practice and compete in the race- goodbye kids college tuition; hello Mille Miglia cuz here I come!

Problem two - I needed a wing man and the first person that came to mind was my blood brother “from another mother”, close friend, fellow auto racing enthusiast, former neighbor Rick Weidinger. I have experienced more bucket list events with Rick that any other person on the planet- Carnival in Rio, tailhook landing and “rubber band” take off on a USA aircraft carrier, African safari,  in the pits at Indy 500 as an owner, drive an open wheel formula one race car at high speeds, own a professional open-wheel race team representing the United States of America and traveling around the world in the world-cup of motorsports by attending races as in Mexico, Amsterdam, London, South Africa, Indy 500, as well as attending a championship soccer match in Rio, and the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta!!  Needless to say- in about 12 seconds of me panting to get the news out to Rick, he was all in!!

Rick and I leave on Saturday, May 7th for Milan Italy to begin the journey of a lifetime [and to knock off actually two items off my bucket list- MM and a audience with the Pope scheduled for May 18^th!].  Look for both of us to post daily on this blog with our rally progress and personal observations [we are both blog virgins so please feel free to ask us any questions or provide comments to improve our communication].  Although we expect to be exhausted every evening after 13-16 hours in the car, it is our goal to provide our dear friends and family with pictures and important event comments as we compete in the 2011 Mille Miglia. On Sunday, we will post our MM rally schedule to help you all get an idea of our upcoming schedule over the next incredible eight days. It is most important to both of us that we are able to share this special journey with all of you and hopefully on a very interactive basis.

So everyone, please start your engines and wish us good luck.

Paul Dell'Isola: Saturday, May 7, 2011 Entry #1.