Clemente Biondetti and mechanic Emilio Romano, driving an Alfa Romeo 2900 B Touring, win the first postwar Mille Miglia with an average speed of 111 kph.
Photo: Giorgio Nada Editore
Describing Clemente Biondetti as colorful is like saying the Sears Tower in Chicago is tall. Unpredictable, imaginative, irascible, gentle, gruff, fascinating, stubborn, generous, outspoken, he was all of those things. He was also the only man to win the Mille Miglia four times, an extraordinary feat of skill, concentration and raw courage.
Born in 1898, Biondetti grew up to be a headstrong young man who did not like compromises, preferred everything to be straightforward and hated to be pushed around just a little more than he hated snobbery. He was forthright to the point of seeming brusque, yet underneath that jagged exterior was a kind and gentle person: as well as the greatest road racer of his day.
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