Enzo Ferrari called it the most beautiful race in the world. We agree.They say that in the veins of the people from Brescia run gasoline and not blood. Maybe that's why the four musketeers, Franco Mazzotti, Aymo Maggi, Giovanni Canestrini and Renzo Castagneto, came up with this race: Brescia - Rome - Brescia. A race destined to become legendary and known all over the world.It was 08.00 a.m. on March 26, 1927 when Aymo Maggi and Bindo Maserati's Isotta Fraschini started the legendary “Freccia Rossa”.
“Among the aims of the Mille Miglia is to demonstrate that, with the cars normally on sale, it is possible to travel on the existing roads in our country, at high speed with a certain safety and regularity... Our task is therefore to give the competition a technical, social and tourist function.” Giovanni Canestrini in 1927 explains what the intent of the race was. An O.M. 665 Superba won the first one. It was driven for 21 hours, 4 minutes and 48 seconds by Nando Minoja and Giuseppe Morandi; they made history traveling at an average speed of 77km/h.
The success of the Mille Miglia was immediate for many reasons. After four editions, in the legendary 1930 race, Nuvolari and Guidotti broke the 100 km/h average speed wall for the first time in their Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS.Those were epic years, and the roads traveled made it adventurous with their striking landscapes.In 1938 there was a serious accident that caused the 1939 race to be canceled, but the organizers did not want to give up and formed a sort of circuit between Brescia, Cremona and Mantova, which was repeated nine times and to reach the original lenght. The Brescia Grand Prix of the Mille Miglia was born.
World War II marked a second stop to the competition. It was resumed in 1947, but destroyed bridges, bad roads, rationed gasoline and tires, and slow resumption of car production made it difficult to organize.The eight editions of the modern era, after the hard postwar years from 1950 to 1957, saw the event take on such international importance that it contributed to the reconstruction of our country's road network, as well as to the development of the automotive industry.
In the 1955 edition Stirling Moss broke the average speed record of 157.65 km/h, but the race had become too dangerous.After the disastrous 1957 edition, where a driver with his co-driver and 10 spectators lost their lives, road speed races were abolished. The Mille Miglia had to be modified.They used a formula, still used today for rallies, that included long transfer routes to connect speed stages on circuits or mountain roads closed to traffic.It went on like this until 1961, when it was all shut off.
In 1968 came Alfa Romeo, which organized a re-evocative tour for some historic cars to present the new car named “1750” in honor of Nuvolari's legendary car of 1930.This was the prelude to the modern editions that officially began in 1982, firstly every two years and then, from 1987, annually.The Mille Miglia became a regularity race where only cars that raced in editions from 1927 to 1957 could participate.
The real stars now are the cars: they attract fans and collectors from all over the world by drawing around the brand related initiatives that make Brescia vibrate throughout the race period.The most beautiful race in the world returns and remains thanks to those who have always believed in it to those who did not stop in the face of difficulties, closures and years of oblivion.The 2024 Edition of the Freccia Rossa will start from Brescia on Tuesday, June 11 and will pass through Turin, then Viareggio, Rome, San Lazzaro di Savena to arrive in Brescia on Saturday, June 15.How many of you will we meet along the way?
