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“The success of the Mille Miglia
fills up with pride the whole Organizing Committee who
worked, during the last 8 months, with dedication and
passion for the realisation of an event that crossed
half Italy. As always success is the result of a big
team. I want to thank the ACI of Brescia and the whole
city for this moment”, declared Alessandro Casali, the
chairman of the Mille Miglia Organizing Committee, as
marginal observations of the prize giving held at the
Brescia Verdi Theatre for the 81st Mille Miglia.
The world's most
beautiful race
this year received more than a thousand requests for participation
among which only 375 cars of inestimable value were
admitted. This major event was made possible thanks to the
work of 800 people, while 8,620 meals were served. 147
resorts were crossed during a total of thirty one and a half hours of driving. Only
three withdrawals and up to 1,049 journalists from all over the
world, written press – radio – TV and internet, registered
all along the itinerary. The video of the Brescia Ferrara
stage, on YouTube, came 3rd place in the classification of
the motor–sports sector and 16th in the general
classification of most seen videos.
“A great emotion for our first Mille
Miglia with the Alfa Romeo wining 80 years after the famous
victory of Campari and Ramponi. My warmest thanks to all the
car companies which, with their vehicles make the Mille
Miglia the world most famous Museum in motion,” said Sandro
Binelli the General Secretary of the Mille Miglia Organizing
Committee. The car classification, in fact, gives
the first position to the Alfa Romeo followed by Bugatti and
Aston Martin. The winning team was Viaro and Viaro in the Alfa Romeo.
Adriano Paroli, Brescia
mayor said: “For
the city, the Mille Miglia confirms itself as being an
important and very heard event. With the new formula, Brescia went beyond its borders,” and even Alberto Cavalli,
the Premier of the Province applauds the event that,
according to the tradition "left and arrived under the rain;
the new organisation won its Mille Miglia and the city has
one more reason to believe that the myth can continue to
make us grow and know the world”. These positive achievements add up to
the silver plate given by the Italian President, Giorgio
Napolitano and to the message of Rome Mayor, Gianni
Alemanno. Once the 2008 Mille Miglia ended,
the Organising Committee was already ready to organise the
next Mille Miglia in 2009.
This year saw a renewed edition, which the ACI
Brescia entrusted to a new Organising Committee led by
President, Alessandro Casali, and Secretary General, Sandro Binelli.
It was a new committee, a new look, and the will to promote
the knowledge of the Mille Miglia throughout the world and
above all make it be again a race “for the people” same as
it used to be from 1927 to 1957. During those years, this romantic and
harsh competition, made of “mud, sweat and passion”, saw the
presence of pilots surrounded by an aura made up of heroism
and dream, like the legendary Tazio Nuvolari.
This is explained by the President of
the Organizing Committee, Alessandro Casali, who said: “The
Mille Miglia is throughout the world the symbol of passion
for motors, history, challenge and beauty. It is also a
symbol of Italy, its style and fascination”.
Today, the Red Arrow (Freccia Rossa) is
a competition of regularity, a thrilling parade of jewels
inherited from the past which challenge each other along an
ancient and picturesque route, which is precisely a
“Thousand Mile” long. On May 15th, the cars left Brescia,
the “native town” of the race, and arrived at
Ferrara, where they stopped for the first time before
setting out again towards Rome, reached on May
16th, before they drove off again on the morning of the 17th in
the direction of Brescia. The “most beautiful race in the
world” crossed small towns and big cities, such as
Verona, Ferrara, Ravenna, Urbino, Assisi, Siena, Florence
and Bologna. In the 2008 edition 375 original
vehicles challenged each other, each in possession of
the “FIVA Identity Card” and without fail constructed
between 1927 and 1957. “There has been - explains Sandro
Binelli, the Secretary General of the Organizing Committee –
an extremely rigorous selection of the cars precisely
according to logics not only of respect but also of
consolidation of the tradition and great international
prestige of the competition”.
The most prestigious recognition
received by the Mille Miglia was offered by the
President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, who awarded
the 2008 edition with a silver plate
commemorating the Freccia Rossa and the engagement
undertaken by the Organising Committee, in order that this
Italian jewel rich in 81 years of history is really -
throughout the world - a symbol and a message of Italy’s
worth and skills.
Amongst the
partakers in the 2008 edition there were well-known personalities and popular
faces of the jet set, namely Kaspar Capparoni and Gabriella
Pession, actors beloved by the TV audience, Luca Bizzarri
and Paolo Kessisoglu – of the TV programme “Le
Iene”, Massimo Giletti and Gianfranco Vissani – James Martin, chef and host of a famous TV cooking
programme on BBC, and also Alberto Bombassei, the President of Brembo,
Bernard Van Vollen Hoven, Van Orange – Nassau, Prince of Orange, the
tailor Mario Boglioli, who has “dressed” the French President Sarkozy,
Diego della Valle, the patron of Fay and Tod’s, amongst the
sponsors of the Event, Patrizio Bertelli, the Managing
Director of Prada, as well as champions like Jean Alesi and
Jochen Mass.
The importance
of the event was
further highlighted by the presence of several institutions:
the Prime Minister’s Office, the Senate of the Republic, the
Ministries of the Interior, of the Foreign Affairs, of
Transport, for Agricultural and Forestry Policies, the
Region of Lombardy and the Region of Lazio. The sponsors too
were outstanding. More
than seven of the most important world automobile trademarks
(Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Lancia, Fiat, Jaguar
and Audi), besides UBI Banco di Brescia – which gives its
name to the Trophy, Chopard, Allianz, Tod’s, Fay, Sixt,
Vitali, NH Hotels, Schueco, Siglaco, Next and Platek.
An absolute novelty of this year’s
edition was represented by the international road show,
during which the Mille Miglia was also the “ambassador” of
the Made in Italy and of the Italian
excellence, promoting the knowledge of Italy’s wine and food
products thanks to the support of the Ministry for
Agricultural and Forestry Policies.
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