The Inverse of Indy.(Column)(Brescia-Rome-Brescia Mille Miglia)

Byline: Matt Davis

While much of the world was busy looking toward the Hoosier state and placing big bets on Castroneves to three-peat in the world's most famous 500-miler, a few of us were betting on an entirely different type of excitement at a 1000-miler in a vastly different place half a world away. Our Pete Lyons is providing a thorough portrait of this year's Brescia-Rome-Brescia Mille Miglia, but I went as a credential-free spectator for the Thursday scrutineering festivities. Driving the race is a terrific experience, but the daylight hours before the late-night ceremonial departure for Ferrara is one of the single best passings of time that exist for a car nut. And it's free.

The Mille Miglia was a true race from 1927 through 1957, the year when on May 12 near the village of Corte Colomba the No. 531 Ferrari 335S of Spaniard Don Alfonso Antonio Cabeza De Vaca y Leighton, Carvajal y Ayre, XVII marchese de Portago, XIII Conte de la Mejorada (aka Alfonso de Portago or Fon to friends) and his co-driver Edmund Nelson burst a tire and hurtled into the local spectators, killing 10 of them along with themselves. This present friendly edition started in 1982 and, fittingly, precedence is always given to those cars that participated in the original event when they were new.

There are 375 cars this year, compared to the 298 that passed scrutineering in 1957. Among the enthusiast drivers was a Savoy prince and King Carl Gustav XVI of Sweden. And every single car of the 375 is a certifiable classic, with the vast majority being used as regular drivers by their owners. And, thankfully as well, a vast majority of them not overly restored to be even better than when they were delivered to their original owners. There are stone chips in the face paint and hard-to-tune engines sounding off all over the ...