Few races in the world were as difficult and dangerous as the Mille Miglia.
The race took place on public roads through Italy, starting in the northern town of Brescia, where it weaved it’s way down the western coast to Rome, crossed over to and up the eastern coast to finish again in Brescia.
It ran non-stop over the length of the day, and for 1956, totalled 992.332 miles (1597 kms) in full distance.
Historically, other than a few exceptions, the race was mostly won in Alfa Romeo’s. Alfa Romeo’s rein on the race changed in 1948 when Ferrari finally won.
By 1956, there were no less than 5 Scuderia Ferraris in the race, and not surprisingly, they took the top 5 positions!
Pen & Ink, watercolour pencils and acrylic pens on 18"x 12" watercolour paper. © Paul Chenard 2016
The winning Ferrari 290 MM Scaglietti was driven “sans” navigator by Italian driver Eugenio Castellotti (1930-1957) in a time of 11hr 37:10.
It was a quite an accomplishment in an extremely miserable, wet and rainy race, with a number of fatal accidents.
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