North to… where was that again? The fourth round of the Mille Miglia race saw additional racers missing. The route of the Mille Miglia changed over the years, so one can only assume that the navigators must have been using different versions of the map for this leg of the journey, with some racing off to Siena and others to Pisa. (Siena was the correct route, in case you were wondering.) Hopefully the scattered field will reconvene as we approach Bologna in the next race.
The road north from Rome was an exciting one. Coming into the day Brian was sure his Aston Martin was going to bring some serious competition to Gentleman Jim’s Ferrari as he was turning fast laps in the high 4.9 second range in warm ups. This was not to be, however, as the Ferrari, under Jim’s pilotage, responded with average laps in the high 4.5 to mid 4.6 second range, leaving the rest of the field far behind.
Still, in the race for the next best, there was plenty of good competition, and on paper the remaining three competitors, Ary, Roy, and Brian, should have finished within seconds of each other. Unfortunately, a stripped front body post caused the Aston Martin to head to the pits for repairs under green, effectively eliminating any chance of a second or third place finish in this heat.
Count Ary had a strong showing in his Lancia, turning in consistently quick laps times in lanes one and two, but at the end of the day, Roy “Salvadori” Martz emerged in second place by over three seconds. His Jag was loose, and a bit unpredictable across lanes, but at Roy’s hand it still came in second quickest among the field.
Barring any catastrophic failures of Jim’s Ferrari, it now looks like the remaining race is for second place, where Ary and Roy and are separated by only 17 seconds. Press on, intrepid racers! Brescia draws nearer every week!
