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Issues of 2008
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Mille Miglia: from Italy to Russia
In no country of the world it was possible to create such complexities for racers and their «iron horses», as they managed to do it in Italy in 1927. In these old days, there was no analogue of the designers cup of the modern times, but a manufacturer, whose machines even managed to finish, was desperately proud of this fact. Let alone a victory, or an «entire podium». In the entire history of this toughest race only three manufacturers were so good that the teams of their cars occupied the entire podium. It was: legendary OM, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari.
The names of Nuvolari, Askari, Caraciolla, Campari, Morandi and Tarufi do not speak so much to Russians, but believe, they were the gods of the automobile races. Every sportsman-winner of a Brescia rally sweared afterwards that it was the heaviest race in his life. The race was established by the young Contes Aymo Maggi and Franco Mazzotti, apparently in response to their home town of Brescia «losing» the Italian Grand Prix to Monza. Together with a group of wealthy associates, they chose a race from Brescia to Rome and back, a figure-eight shaped course of roughly 1500 km — or a thousand Roman miles. Later races followed twelve other routes with varying total lengths. The first race started on 26 March 1927 with around seventy-five starters — all Italian. The winner completed the course in just under 21 hours 5 minutes; local marque OM swept the top three places. The race was banned after a fatal crash in 1957 that took the lives of driver Alfonso de Portago, his co-driver/navigator, and eleven spectators, at the village of Guidizzolo. The crash was probably caused by a blown tire. The manufacturer was blamed and sued for this, as was the Ferrari team, which did not change tires in order to save time. From 1958 to 1961, the event resumed as a Rallying¬like round trip at legal speeds with a few special stages driven at full speed, but this was discontinued also. Since 1977, the name was revived as the Mille Miglia Storica, a parade for pre-1957 cars that takes several days. So, thirty years ago, a new epoch (a retrospective one) started in the life of Mille Miglia. The organizers succeeded in preserving the spirit of motor races of the heroic 1920¬s and «mad» 1950-s. Those days, your position in the society did not mean much; it was only important how fast you were able to drive your car. The gentleman spirit was also important: very often, the crews leading in a race stopped to pull out a wounded competitor from his car and take him on their hands to the nearest hospital. Every year, a bunch of about thousand enthusiasts including kings and crown princes, movie stars and industrial magnates, great sportsmen and ordinary people get on Piazza Vittoria to participate in the races. The goal is to start, to reach the finish and, maybe, to get to the top thirty. This year, the rally will be held for the twenty fifth time. Representatives of twenty six countries have made the way through the «sieve» of the organizers. 375 unique automobiles will participate in the struggle for the title «Freccia Rossa» («The Red Arrow») this time. Their crews fearlessly face a three-day test of the mechanics and the spirit. Mille Miglia is not only the most beautiful race in the world (as it is written on the official poster), but also the heaviest oldtimer race. It takes place annually over the thirty years after the beginning of the retrospective period. The children occupy the positions of their fathers and grandfathers. It is impossible to describe the feelings of Vittorio Palazzani, not only reconstructing Mille Miglia, but also winning the very first race of the revived race, bestowing its cup on his son Alberto and on sons of his friends and partners that helped him to revive this miracle. Actually, today half of the podium is occupied by the second generation of the racers inheriting this hobby from their fathers. That cohort of great enthusiasts managed to erect one more monument to themselves, when several years ago, a unique museum devoted to the autorace, Museo della Mille Miglia, opened its doors. The exposition of a museum begins with the portraits of the «four musketeers», as they were named by contemporaries, who created Mille Miglia, and the tablets with the names of forty our contemporaries who embodied the idea of Vittorio Palazzani and created this Museum. This year, the one who will get between May 17th and 19th in Brescia, Verona, Ferrara, San Marino, Rome, Florence, Siena, Cremona, Bologna in any other city of Italy, crossed by a cavalcade of the participants, will have an opportunity to see a fluttering Russian flag above one of the two Russian automobiles.
This year is really significant, because apart from the sole Russian participant crew of the Bazheniny famil,y one more Russian team of Andrey and Tatyana Pankovskie, members of the Classical Automobiles Club, has made their way to join the race on a rare in Russia car by an Italian producer, Bandini. Hundred thousand people will stand along the streets of the most beautiful cities, welcoming the pilots, but more automobiles-legends. The crews of the automobiles having a place for luggage will bring with them to the finish in Brescia the pasta, cheese, olives and wine presented by the citizens of the cities passed on their way. This trip will produce an unforgettable imprint on those participating in the race for the first time. It is necessary to mark the role of one of the modern musketeers of Mille Miglia, Gino Danieli. Every year he, being one of the eight «fathers» of the event, plans this tremendous route not deviating a single mile from the roads used by the racers of that heroic period. Certainly, the Mille Miglia’s basic magic is in the fact that once a year, the greatest racing automobiles of all times limited by the key rule of their at least once in a lifetime starting from Piazza Vittoria in the initial period of eighty to fifty years ago get together for a race. It is only there, where one can see all these machines that created the modern motor racing brought together. This year, on the «Red Arrow» route, it is possible to meet Alfa Romeo 6C 1500MMS (starting number 33). This machine was the third to finish in its class in 1928 and in 1929 and the second in 1930. Another great Alpha Romeo, 1750 GS (starting number 54), took part in seven, as Italians speak, editions of Mille Miglia, and once even belonged to Benito Mussolini. The great dictator remaines only a small «detail» in the biography of the great automobile. Aston Martin DBR 2, which literally destroyed all the competitors in Le Mans in 1957, participates in the competition with the number 242. The biographies of the Bugatti, Ferrari and the unknown in Russia Cisitalia, Ermini and Bizzarini, which carried Caraciolla, Nuvolari and Tarufi, make the head of anyone not indifferent to gasoline and motor oil dizzy. This year’s organizers managed at last to find one automobile (starting number 12) from that heroic OM team, which occupied the entire podium 80 years ago. One more sensation of this year is that David Richards, the great boss of the Formula 1 and the founder of Prodrive, who successively got the Subaru team on the WRC podium for a number of years, provides a famous Ferrari 212 Export. Together with other champions (Jackie X, Stirling Moss, Johann Weights) he annually participates in this legendary event. One and a half month after the finish of the race, many of its participants will go to the «Russian Mille Miglia», i.e. «The Golden Ring of Russia» rally. Some great automobiles with the well-known pilots behind the wheel will get on the roads of Moscow and Moscow suburbs of Tver, Yaroslavl, Vladimir and other areas of Russia. Luciano Viaro, who won Mille Miglia in 2005 and appeared to be the second in 2006 only because of a ref’s mistake will be among them. Alberto Bordogna, the winner of the last race, the son of Tulio Bordogna, to whose memory the future Russian rally of classical automobiles is devoted, also will come. Famous Mille Miglia goes to Russia.
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