Race of my Life: John Fitch

I have to be most proud of the 1955 Mille Miglia, which I did in a production car - the Gullwing Mercedes-Benz 300SL.

I finished fifth overall from a starting line-up of over 500 cars. I was only beaten by four racing cars, and won the Grand Touring Class.

To get that overall finish in a production car could not have been predicted beforehand, even by the most optimistic person - and that includes myself!

It was a fierce battle with Olivier Gendebien. He was, by my reckoning, possibly the best long-distance driver ever.

He often entered races in private Ferraris against the factory and beat them, without the benefit of their preparation, but at the Mille Miglia he was in another Mercedes. Beating him is one of the reasons I think that this was the best drive of my career.

We were not well-prepared because Denis Jenkinson was originally going to drive with me in the Gullwing but in the end chose to race with Stirling Moss for the overall win, which I couldn't do in the 300SL.

They were friends and wanted an all-British team and I was a close friend of both of them, so I had to give it to them.

It had been arranged that Denis was going to do the notes for me before Stirling was invited to the team - I described to Denis the roller map that let Stirling win.

Fitch came up with the 'roller map' that helped Moss/Jenkinson win overall © LAT

I didn't divulge that myself because people would be suspicious and maybe not believe me, so I made Denis say in one of his Motor Sport articles that I came up with the roller map.

I'd done the event before, but I had no preparation in 1955 because I'd just lost the best navigator in the world. In the end I had Kurt Gesell as my co-driver.

But Mercedes was the most efficient team - they made a record of everything - and that was tremendously helpful.

The car didn't run perfectly though. It had a high-speed misfire quite early, from about half-distance, but I didn't know whether Gendebien had a problem or not - I think he did [he had a puncture].

We traded the lead back and forth for hours, all through the 1000 miles, and we won by less than seven minutes after 11 and a half hours of driving.

RACE FACTS

Mille Miglia
April 30-May 1, 1955
World Sports Car Championship, round 3

1. Stirling Moss/Denis Jenkinson (Mercedes-Benz 300SLR), 10h07m48s (97.96mph)
2. Juan Manuel Fangio (Mercedes-Benz 300SLR), 10h39m33s
3. Umberto Maglioli/Luciano Monteferrario (Ferrari 118LM), 10h52m47s
4. Francesco Giardini (Maserati A6GCS), 11h15m32s
5. John Fitch/Kurt Gesell (Mercedes-Benz 300SL), 11h29m21s
6. Sergio Sighinolfi (Ferrari 750S Monza), 11h33m27s
7. Olivier Gendebien/M Washer (Mercedes-Benz 300SLR), 11h36m00s
8. Wolfgang Seidel/Helmut Glockler (Porsche 550), 12h08m17s

*Orginally published on AUTOSPORT on July 22, 2010. John Fitch was speaking to Kevin Turner