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The Greatest Race in the World


The classic cars in the Mille Miglia stand at the Show ... Mercedes – Benz 300 SLR 1955

The classic cars in the Mille Miglia stand at the Show ... Mercedes – Benz 300 SLR 1955

 

Padova, October 27, 2007

“The Mille Miglia is part of Italy’s historical heritage, just like the Coliseum or Michelangelo’s Pietà. Our aim is to make the most of this historic race, not only from a sporting and competitive point of view, but also by highlighting the cities of Brescia and Rome and all the other places along the course. It will be a great showcase of the excellence of ‘Made in Italy’.” These were the words of Alessandro Casali, President of the Mille Miglia Organising Committee, presenting the 2008 edition of the historic Freccia Rossa, in Padova today during the Vintage Car and Motorcycle Show.

.... 100reds of images from the 80th Mille Miglia >>>




The Mille Miglia, which started in 1927, reached an important target in 2007 after 80 years in its history, a long tradition marked by the names of great drivers and the changes that have occurred in Italian society, background to the race. The idea of rebirth and renewal has in fact always been associated with the Mille Miglia; the race first started in a period characterised by great transformations in our country, which was changing from a rural to an industrial society, and after World War II, the Freccia Rossa was meant to represent a new start for Italy. Through the decades, the Mille Miglia has remained faithful to the tradition linking it to its original territory, and has always maintained a strong connection with Brescia, which was and still is today the starting and finishing point.

The 2008 edition, however, does not only intend to be a celebration and a commemoration of past performances: the new Mille Miglia Organising Committee (made up of MAC Events, Meet Comunicazione and SanremoRally, who have been assigned the organisation of the Mille Miglia until 2012), wants to emphasise the fact that it is a great international event, with numerous presentations abroad as well. Furthermore, the spirit and “ideals” which have always inspired the “greatest race in the world” cannot be forgotten.

“One of the strategic objectives of the Organising Committee is to communicate the history and values of the Mille Miglia, renowned worldwide, through confirmation of the event in Japan, relaunching the rally in the United States and Argentina, and setting up new tributes in other countries,” explained Sandro Binelli, General Secretary of the Mille Miglia Organising Committee. “We have created a specific community to strengthen the sporting spirit of the race all year round, registering all the vehicles which have taken part in the historic speed editions and in the commemorations.”

All information on the 2008 edition is available on the new website, where the programme and relevant application form are published. This edition’s great logistic innovation is represented by the Mille Miglia Paddock, located inside the Brescia Fair (Brixia Expo). The Mille Miglia Paddock will host the participants and their historic cars and will therefore solve many practical problems connected with roads and parking in the town centre. “Tradition dictates that the town, the historic cars and the teams will meet in Brescia’s squares,” added Binelli. “A great show will therefore come back to liven up the heart of Brescia.”

The 2008 Mille Miglia will start on Thursday, May 15: from 8.30 am to 12, Simon Kidston and Savina Confaloni will present the Freccia Rossa to the public in Piazza della Loggia, and vehicles taking part in the race will be on display. The first car will start the race at 7 pm from Viale Venezia, for the leg between Brescia and Ferrara, where the group is expected in the town centre after 11:30 pm. Friday the Ferrara-Rome leg will culminate with arrival in Piazza del Popolo and the parade past the Imperial Forums. On Saturday May 17, the start of the leg between Rome and Brescia is scheduled at dawn from Piazza del Popolo. On Sunday, May 18, in the morning, prize ceremonies will take place in the beautiful setting of the Teatro Grande in Brescia, the location chosen for the Mille Miglia Gala since 1928. Drivers will face 49 regularity tests.

Once again, 375 cars will be admitted to the race. Cars built between 1927 and 1957 can take part in the Mille Miglia, as long as the models appeared in at least one historic edition. Some vehicles built before 1927 may be admitted, if the model took part in the Mille Miglia before 1930. Vehicles must be original and all kinds of replicas, even if partial, will be excluded. All cars must comply with F.I.V.A. and F.I.A. rules, which only allow vehicles with regular certification to be admitted to the race. As per international regulations, the “FIVA Passport” (Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens), released by the national federation (ANS), is required. As to the coefficients used for standings, a system based on technical, sporting and historical characteristics, as well as design date, has been adopted, guaranteeing clarity and objectivity. Applications must be submitted by December 31, 2007. The form can be filled in on line, on the website www.1000miglia.eu

 

The Histrory


From 1927 to 1961
The legend of the Mille Miglia came into being at the end of 1926, when four young men keen on cars and racing (the “Four Musketeers”), Count Aymo Maggi of Gradella, his friend and main backer Count Franco Mazzotti, both at the head of the newly organised Brescia Automobile Club, Renzo Castagneto, who had excellent organisational skills and had once been a driver himself and “Gazzetta dello Sport” journalist Giovanni Canestrini, invented and planned the race, as a reaction to the fact that the Italian Grand Prix had not been assigned to their hometown, Brescia. They chose a figure-eight-shaped course from Brescia to Rome and back, covering a distance of approximately 1,600 kilometres (about 1,000 miles, thus the name). Only after the end of the first Mille Miglia was it decided to repeat the race in subsequent years, seeing its enormous success.

The first historic edition started on March 26, 1927, with 77 teams, only two of which were foreign (driving the tiny Peugeot 5 HP Spiders). On the other hand, the best Italian drivers had all entered, as well as some famous public figures. Fifty-five cars finished the race, whereas 22 were forced to withdraw. The winners of the first Mille Miglia were Ferdinando Minoia and Giuseppe Morandi in an OM, having completed the course in 21 hours, four minutes and 48.2 seconds, at an average speed of 77.238 kph.

The Mille Miglia grew in popularity, becoming the most important event among open-road races, despite economic difficulties and the international controversies in which Italy was involved during those years.
The event was first suspended in 1939, after a serious accident that had occurred during the rally the year before and had killed ten people, and the race was stopped once again in 1940 because of Italy’s involvement in World War II. Nonetheless, a special edition of the event took place that year, on a course connecting Brescia, Cremona and Mantova.

The Mille Miglia resumed on June 21, 1947, at 2 pm, in what had become the Italian Republic, and was won by Biondetti, along with Romano, in the powerful “Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B aspirated Berlinetta Touring”, in 16 hours, 16 minutes and 39 seconds. However, the alltime record was later set by English driver Stirling Moss, who in 1955 covered 1,600 km in 10 hours and eight minutes, driving a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR number 722. It is said that his navigator, the bearded journalist Denis Jenkinson, carried out preliminary reconnaissance of the course, then using a homemade but detailed “radar” written on a five-metre piece of paper to direct Moss during the rally, unrolling it from one scroll to another, set side to side inside a box.

The tragedy which was to mark the Mille Miglia forever took place in 1957: the final victory belonged to Taruffi and his Ferrari, but in Guidizzolo, a small town in Mantova province, less than 40 kilometres from the finish line, Spanish driver Alfonso de Portago went off the road at almost 300 kilometres per hour after blowing his left front tyre, claiming the lives of nine spectators including five children, and dying along with his co-driver, American journalist Edmund Gurner Nelson. Three days later, the Italian Government banned the Mille Miglia and all open-road races. After the accident, Enzo Ferrari, builder of the vehicle involved, underwent a long trial, ending in acquittal. The Brescia Automobile Club attempted to reinstate the race, but the organisers were forced to abandon a Mille Miglia based on speed, as a consequence of the ostracism of the Interministerial Commission and opposition from part of the public, shocked by the Guidizzolo accident, as well as from the Press - who had exalted the race up to the day before. They were forced to transform it into a regularity race with some fast stretches, like the Stella Alpina in the past in Italy or the Tour de France Automobile in France, which despite the huge tragedy at Le Mans in 1955, managed to celebrate its 50th and last edition in 1986, maintaining its original characteristics.

The three Mille Miglia which took place in 1958, 1959 and 1961, although having the same name and covering approximately the same distance, but without being numbered or including the tribute to Franco Mazzotti, were however totally different from previous editions.

From 1977 to the Present
In 1977, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1000 Miglia Cup, the Brescia Automobile Club organised the 1000 Miglia Rally on provincial roads, returning to the formula of a regularity competition with special speed tests, an idea which had already been adopted in the last three Mille Miglia starting in 1958, but had been codified by the FIA since the ‘50s for races included in the European Rally Championship. On the occasion of that 50th anniversary, and considering the growing phenomenon of vintage car collection, a commemorative race from Brescia to Rome and back was organised only for historic cars, drawing up the final standings on the basis of results obtained in precision tests set along the course. Repetition of the event over a longer distance, however, required an organisation which could dedicate itself full time to the rally and invest significantly (from a financial point of view as well) in its preparation.

The new organisation made its debut in 1982 on the occasion of the second historic commemoration, the first one to start from the traditional platform in Viale Venezia, and in the 1984 and 1986 editions. Starting in 1987, the large number of entries, which went from 220 in 1982 to 350 in 1984, forced the committee to abandon the two-year recurrence, preferring an annual competition.

The historic commemoration not only inherits the symbols and some parts of the course from the speed Mille Miglia, but most of all its spirit, although today’s event is mainly focused on exploiting the competition in different ways, not simply connected to the race itself but wisely combined with entertainment and tourism.

Out of respect for an event reserved for historic cars, since 1993 the use of manual chronometers has been mandatory and has replaced complicated electronic measuring devices. Furthermore, starting in 1996, the participation of older vehicles, less competitive and harder to drive, has been encouraged by using appropriate results criteria.


The Schedule
Wednesday 14th May
Exclusively for drivers of cars which took part in the original Mille Miglia Races, for official teams of Car Manufacturers and famous drivers.
9.00 A.M. Arrival of cars at the Mille Miglia Paddock at Brixia Expo (Fiera di Brescia). Reserved areas for Car
6.00 P.M. Manufacturers. Administrative checks and collection of gifts. Parking of cars in secure reserved areas
inside the Mille Miglia Paddock and parking of trailers and car transporters inside the Mille Miglia
Paddock.
9.00 P.M. Gala dinner.

Thursday 15th May
8.00 A.M. Arrival of cars at the Mille Miglia Paddock at Brixia Expo.Administrative checks for the remaining
4.30 P.M. participants. Shuttle service to the centre of Brescia (Piazza della Loggia and Piazza della Vittoria) and back.
8.00 A.M. Departure of participating cars to the Piazza della Loggia for scrutineering, collection of necessary car
4.30 P.M. stickers and road-books.
8.30 A.M. Public presentation, by Simon Kidston and Savina Confaloni, of cars that arrived on May 14th and that
12.00 P.M will be displayed on several squares through the city.
12.00 P.M. Holy Mass and blessing of a selected group of cars in Piazza Duomo.
5.00 P.M. Buffet dinner at Mille Miglia Museum.
6.30 P.M.
7.00 P.M. Departure of the first car from Viale Venezia for the Brescia-Ferrara stage and public presentation of
all participating cars.
11.30 P.M. Arrival of the first car in Ferrara.
01.00 A.M. Arrival of the last car.
APPROX.

Friday 16th May
9.00 A.M. Ferrara. Departure of the first car from Piazza Ariostea for the Ferrara-Rome stage.
1.30 P.M. Buffet lunch in Urbino.
3.30 P.M.
9.00 P.M. Arrival of the first car in Piazza del Popolo in Rome. Parade of cars throughout the streets of the city,
up to via dei fori imperiali for the public presentation on stage on the gorgeous background of the
Coliseum. Broadcasting of the event on a national television network.

Saturday 17th May
6.30 A.M. Rome. Departure of the first car from Piazza del Popolo for the Rome-Brescia stage.
1.30 P.M. Buffet lunch in Buonconvento (SI).
9.30 P.M. Arrival of the first car downtown in Brescia.
2.00 A.M. Public presentation of cars at the finish-line in Viale Venezia.

Sunday 18th May
11.00 A.M. Brescia. Shuttle service from the hotels to the historic Teatro Grande. Prize-giving cerimony at the
Teatro Grande.
1.30 P.M. Cocktail and farewell lunch.