Global Information1955 Mille Miglia information
The 1955 Mille Miglia was a 1,000 mile motor race held on a course made up entirely of public roads around Italy, mostly on the outer parts of the country on April 30-May 1, 1955. Also known as the 22. edizione Mille Miglia, the 992.332 mile (1597 km) route was based on a round trip between Brescia and Rome, with start/finish in Brescia. It was the 3rd round of the 1955 World Sportscar Championship and for the Coppa Franco Mazzotti.[1]
As in previous years, the event was race against the clock, as the cars were released at one-minute intervals. In the Mille Miglia, the smaller displacement slower cars started first late in the previous evening, and the large-bore professional cars started last early the next morning. Each car number related to their allocated start time. For example, Luigi Musso’s car had the number 651, he left Brescia at 6:51am. Some drivers went with navigators, others didn't; a number of local Italian drivers had knowledge of the routes being used and felt confident enough that they wouldn't need one.[1]
This race was won by Mercedes-Benz factory driver Stirling Moss with the aid of his navigator Denis Jenkinson. They completed the 992-mile distance in 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds- an average speed of 99 mph (158 km/h). The two Englishmen finished 32 minutes in front of their second-placed teammate, Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio. Unusual for this race, the weather was good for extended periods all around northern Italy, and Moss and Jenkinson never encountered any rain or other adverse conditions, which helped them to achieve the all-time record average speed for this race.
Typical of the very high danger of this race and the large amateur field it attracted for a race where professional teams would participate, 3 people- 2 drivers and 1 spectator were killed in this race. Giovanni Brinci, driving a Ferrari 212 with Dorando Malinconi hit a gate at rail crossing, overturned and crashed against a cement road sign in the village of Tortoreto Lido, just north of the 20th checkpoint at Giuilanova in Teramo about 300 miles into the race. Although Malinconi survived, Brinci was gravely injured in this accident, and would pass away in a hospital in the nearby city of Teramo the following day. An Alfa Romeo 6C 2500, #657 driven by Giannino Festari went out of control on the approach to a 90-degree turn along the Via Goito, towards the Scaricatore bridge over the Bassanello river, in the neighbourhoods of Padua, Italy, some 50 miles into his race. The accident occurred at about 08h00 on Sunday. According to eyewitnesses reports, Festari was one of three competitors who arrived together at the same time, and the Alfa went off the road and hit a group of spectators standing behind the straw bales, in a prohibited area. Fifteen people were severely injured, eleven of them were children. One of them, 4-year old Giuliano Carraro died in a hospital in Padua. And 50-year old Giuseppe Donnini, driving a Fiat 600 crashed into a parked car in Montichari near Brescia less than 20 miles from the finish, after having driven for nearly 24 consecutive hours. He suffered grave head injuries and died a few hours later in a hospital in Montichari; his co-driver Fausto Castellarin had minor injuries and survived.[2]
- ^ a b "Mille Miglia 1955 - Racing Sports Cars".
- ^ "Motorsport Memorial -".