Mille Miglia History
We might never know if Nando Minoja, O.M. driver, arriving as the winner in the Viale Venezia at seven in the morning on the 27th March 1927 while the town of Brescia was still sleeping, not expecting the returning vehicles of the first Mille Miglia Cup until much later in the day, would have imagined that he had set the first seal on a legend destined to outlive its founders and protagonists.
The desire to stage a great contest had been aroused, only a year earlier, in two scions of the Brescia nobility, Aymo Maggi, 23 and Franco Mazzotti, 22. The two set off every week, racing the train to Milan in their Bugatti or Fraschini, where they met other automobile enthusiasts; at the Biffi in the Galleria. There, together with simple fans, sports journalists, and champions of the day, among them Nuvolari, Borzacchini, Brilli Peri, Varzi, Danese, they decided to do something to restore Brescia to the place that she deserved in the automobile world.
In December 1926, they contacted another Brescia man, Renzo Castagneto, 34, a man with inborn organizational and show business talent, then secretary of the Brescia RACI, Regio Automobil Club d'Italia, (of which Mazzotti would be made president), and the Trento man, Milanese by adoption, Giovanni Canestrini, 32, journalist for the Gazzetta dello Sport, the first journalist to specialise in the automobile industry. The group thus composed, under the moniker of 'The Four Musketeers', proposed various solutions.
They lived in a decade of great challenges. These were the years of glorious enterprises, of Nobile's dirigible expedition to the North Pole, the flight of Lindbergh across the Atlantic, of speed records on land, sea, and in the air. These brilliant endeavours sparked the enthusiasm of our young Musketeers. They discarded the idea of reviving one of the most famous Brescia automobile races of the past (the "Great Road Race" of 1929, the celebrated "Week" of the beginning of the Century, the "Brescia Race" of 1905, for which the Florio Cup was awarded) They also had to drop the idea of reviving the Brescia Circuit, known as the "Fascia d'Oro", begun in the wilds between Montichiari and Ghedi, along which was contested the first "Gran Premio d'Italia", since which Brescian Arturo Mercanti (never forgiven by his fellow citizens, and so much so as to have to take part in the Mille Miglia under the pseudonym "Unknown Monk"), guessing the success of the circuits, had recently inaugurated the Monza Autodrome. Unable to repeat a "Giro d'Italia", and disdaining to imitate a regular race, however hard, like the "Coppa delle Alpi", the necessity seemed evident to create something absolutely new and sensational.
(click in image)
The ideal course, hard and selective (consideration must be given to the state of the roads at that time and the low reliability of vehicles), was soon identified. This course answered some fundamental requirements; it involved half the peninsular offering choice among many tracks, it followed the custom of the time which aimed at everything converging on the capital and, something more important, it assigned to Brescia the role of protagonist. There only remained to find a name for the race: Franco Mazzotti, just returned from a race in the United States, realizing that the route ran for about 1600 Km, immediately proposed "Coppa Mille Miglia" - the thousand mile cup.
The only opposition to the name came from the fear of being accused of admiring foreigners, but Canestrini reminded everyone that the Roman Empire was measured in miles and the name was approved. The Mille Miglia was officially born.
Preparations were made accordingly, amongst a series of difficulties and ill-humour, overcome thanks to the Milan press (the Gazzetta dello Sport allied themselves with our four musketeers from the beginning) and above all thanks to the political support of Augusto Turati, a Brescian who was at that time secretary of the Fascist Party.
(click in image)
Thus began a saga covering thirteen pre-war seasons, and in the eleven from '47 to '57 the most celebrated champions and the best cars gravitated towards Brescia from all parts of the world to line up, on the order of Castagneto, at the point which foreign correspondents loved to call Viale Rebuffone, confusing it with Viale Venezia.
» Back to the last page
QUESTIONS?
» ask us
Copyright: Hua De Feng Ying Co.Ltd.
There are no pictures in this gallery yet.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
Chinese
