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MILLE MIGLIA 2016

Brescia 17 May 2016 Press release Brescia

Brescia, 17 May 2016 – 450 historic cars of inestimable value, 71 car manufacturers, 900 participants coming from 41 countries. These are some of the numbers that highlight the thirty-fourth occurrence of the Mille Miglia [Thousand Miles], the famous road race that will be held from Thursday 19 May to Sunday, 22 May 2016. According to tradition, the date is a week before the Formula One Grand Prix in Monaco. Also observing a tradition from 1927, the thirty-fourth race will begin and end in Brescia, travelling through half of Italy before and after the halfway point in Rome. Every year, the race course is changed in order to bring the Mille Miglia through places it did not touch in the previous year, this time with intermediate stops in Rimini, Rome and Parma.

For the fourth consecutive year, the competition will be organised by 1000 Miglia Srl, a wholly owned company of the Automobile Club of Brescia that was created specially in 2012 to manage the race, and that for the last three races has achieved new standards both in terms of sports and financial returns.

«Mille Miglia is a very important event not only for the city of Brescia, but for all of Italy – stated Aldo Bonomi, the president of 1000 Miglia Srl – because it is a tremendous promotion opportunity for the specialities of our country. But it is also an event that requires managerial skill and a strong commitment both organisationally and financially. The wager made in 2012 with the creation of a company devoted to the organisation and management of this event has turned out to be a winner».

«The numbers tell the whole tale – added CEO Andrea Dalledonne -. The last financial statement, in fact, showed receipts of 8 million Euros, an increase of 34% over the previous year. Our net income exceeded a million Euros, after a total of 507,000 in 2014 and 68,000 in 2013. Strong management and the contribution of everyone involved, our collaborators and participants, with the invaluable support of our sponsors, whom I thank sincerely, are the elements needed to make this success possible».

The Mille Miglia race – Mille Miglia 2016 will take place in four stages for an equal number of days. The first leg is the departure in the early afternoon of Thursday, 19 May, a trip through the Parco Giardino Sigurtà di Valeggio on Mincio, then travelling through Ravenna, Ferrara, and Rimini, where this first leg will end. The following day, Friday, 20 May, with stops in Macerata and Fermo, the second leg will take the competitors to Rome, where the simultaneous occurrence of the Jubilee required some changes to the route of the usual night-time parade in the capital city.

On Saturday, 21 May the route for the third leg of the journey through Rome and Tuscany will be substantially unchanged, with an intermediate break in Poggibonsi. After the checkpoint at Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence, Mille Miglia will proceed through the Futa and Raticosa Passes, arriving next in Parma, for the conclusion of the leg.

On Sunday morning, the Freccia Rossa convoy will depart for the fourth and last leg, leaving from Parma and heading towards Lodi. This is a trip that does not take place during the Mille Miglia speed race, but the organisers wanted to pay tribute to the driver Eugenio Castellotti of Lodi, sixty years after his victory when, at twenty-five years of age, he won the twenty-third Mille Miglia at the wheel of his Ferrari 290 MM, along 1,600 kilometres in constant rain. From Cremona, Mille Miglia will head towards Monza for some tests in the Autodrome of Brianza, created and founded in 1922 by Brescian Arturo Mercanti, and then crossing Bergamo for Franciacorta.

This year, in tribute to Franco Mazzotti, creator and founder of Mille Miglia, the organisers and the Municipality of Chiari agreed to present a special programme to observe the hundredth year of Villa Mazzotti. Instead of a simple trip along Via Mazzini, the competing automobiles will perform a Stamp Check right in front of Villa Mazzotti, entering the west gate and leaving from the east gate towards Brescia. Continuing in its promotion of the area, this year the competitors’ lunch will be served shortly before arrival a few kilometres from Brescia: in Gussago, everyone will be able to enjoy the local specialities, the typical Brescian skewers. And beginning at 2pm, this year once again Viale Venezia will be where the chequered flag is waved for the Freccia Rossa, just as it did in 1927.

The Vice President of 1000 Miglia Srl, Franco Gussalli Beretta, stated: «In exchange for the warm welcome along the race course, Mille Miglia brings with it a share of the media attention that the Freccia Rossa offers to the towns along the way. Every year, thousands of photographs and videos are distributed throughout the world by newspapers, television stations and websites».

An important partnership was created by 1000 Miglia Srl and Mediaset: in addition to special reporting dedicated to the race, the TV networks in this group will present news of Mille Miglia each day in their newscasts.

Radio Monte Carlo will be the official radio station for Mille Miglia and will experience the race from the perspective of a contestant: the racing editor of broadcaster Paolo Ciccarone will take part in the contest in a blazing RMC designed Giulietta and, through two broadcasts daily, interviews and an online journal on radiomontecarlo.net, will narrate the legendary race to its listeners.

Mille Miglia: Facts & Figures– The fact that Mille Miglia is the rarest travelling museum in the history of cars counts among the several reasons why this race is incomparable in terms of elegance, exclusivity and prestige. On this occasion, in fact, priceless treasures race in Brescia after they have written the most beautiful pages of international motorsports. Among the Museums that will send their vehicles to Brescia: Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche.

Considering both private and museum vehicles, 76 cars will be back to Brescia after they already participated in one past edition of Mille Miglia between 1927 and 1957. Among them, the Ferrari 340 with which Gigi Villoresi won the 1951 edition and one Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara, that belonged to Benito Mussolini, which ran the Mille Miglia in 1936 driven by Ercole Boratto.

Among all the participating vehicles, the most represented carmaker is Alfa Romeo with 47 vehicles (out of 61 registrations), followed by Mercedes-Benz with 41 (57) and FIAT with 38 (46).

Then, Lancia and Jaguar follow with 24 participants (out of 42 and 54 respectively), Ferrari (23) and Porsche (38) with 21, Bugatti with 20 (21) and Aston Martin with 19 (32); the list of participants includes other names and totals 71 Car Manufacturers out of 75 registered.

Considering the registrations from 41 Nations in all continents, the selected crews‘ Countries of origin are 38, with Italy being again the most highly represented Country, with 273 participants out of 358 registrations. The representatives from Germany, with 124 people (172), Holland with 75 (115), United Kingdom again 75 (117), United States of America with 65 (66), Switzerland with 43 (65), Belgium with 37 (58) and Argentina with 19 (24) are growing. Please note that, since the number of crews made up by people of different nationalities has been growing year on year, the calculation refers to single individuals.

This edition witnessed the extension of the car fleet: in addition to the typical Freccia Rossa cars, the organizers decided to accept 25 more vehicles, to reach 440 cars. These models all meet the Mille Miglia requirement; however, they have never participated in the canonical editions of the race for different reasons. These vehicles shall fully participate in the race this year; however, they will not be assigned with the merit coefficient to leave the victory to the models that were the protagonists of the race from 1927 to 1957.

To complete a total figure that had never been reached in any other competition for classical vehicles, ten more cars will participate in the Military Category, driven by the top officers of the different services in the Italian Armed Forces, as it happened in 1952.

The race will cover 1,718 km and it will be even more fascinating thanks to 100 more cars manufactured after 1958 that will participate in the Ferrari Tribute to Mille Miglia and in the Mercedes-Benz Mille Miglia Challenge, which are reserved to prevalently modern cars produced by the two car manufacturers.

Brescia and the Mille Miglia – Brescia, the City of the Mille Miglia, shall be the great protagonist of the four motor-show days as usual. In addition to hosting the start and the finish, the city will experience the international atmosphere of the race from the Sunday before, when the first crews are planned to arrive from all over the world. The technical and sports checks will be completed in the pavilions of the Brescia Fair again this year.

On the evening of Tuesday 17 may, to celebrate the memory of the first president of 1000 Miglia Srl, who recently died, the city streets will host the Roberto Gaburri Trophy, a race with about a hundred cars registered in the Mille Miglia that will cross the city and arrive in Corso Zanardelli.

On Wednesday 18, from 4pm to 10pm, and on Thursday morning, Piazza della Vittoria will host the Mille Miglia Village, where the racing cars will be punched. This operation is simulated by assigning a lead punch to mark the cars’ and the crews’ success in the technical and sports checks. Originally, the engines were sealed to prevent them from being modified after the checks.

On Thursday 19, instead, a few minutes before the start, the aircrafts of the Frecce Tricolori Italian Acrobatic Team will cross the sky above Brescia. While waiting for the car parade to be back, on Saturday 21 May the city centre will host Mille Miglia The Night, the “Sleepless Night” organized by the Municipality of Brescia. To conclude, on Sunday 22, the Teatro Grande will host the awards ceremony as of 6:30pm.

«Again for this edition, the participants will be able to see art and history running in front of their eyes along the Mille Miglia course while they are crossing some of the most beautiful and suggestive Italian places – commented Giuseppe Cherubini, the curator of the Mille Miglia course –. The whole Mille Miglia parade will admire the natural beauties of the Italian territory, confirming that the Mille Miglia race is a tool to spread knowledge and promote the values and beauties of the Italian territory ».

Information on the Mille Miglia race

The 34th edition of the Mille Miglia race, the most famous road race of all times, will start on Thursday 19 and finish on Sunday 22 May 2016. To respect the 1927 tradition, the course starts and finishes in Brescia, with four legs that cross Northern and Central Italy, before and after the turning point in Rome. Thanks to its ability to match tradition, innovation, creativity, elegance and landscape beauties, the Mille Miglia race represents a symbol of the Italian excellence worldwide. From 2013, the event has been managed by 1000 Miglia srl, a company fully owned by Automobile Club Brescia that expressly established it in 2012. Chaired by Aldo Bonomi, with Vice-president Franco Gussalli Beretta, 1000 Miglia srl closed the last financial year with a 34% increase in the sales compared to the previous year.