1955 Mille Miglia
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.
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.
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.
[1] For this year's Mille Miglia, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Maserati and Aston Martin all came to Brescia wanting to win.
Scuderia Ferrari brought cars for Umberto Maglioli, Sergio Sighinolfi, Paolo Marzotto and Piero Taruffi, Aston Martin had a DB3S for Peter Collins and DB2/4s for Paul Frère and Tommy Wisdom; and Maserati only had one 300S for Cesare Perdisa.
Daimler Benz AG, who were making their Championship debut in this event, had probably the strongest line-up: Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Hans Herrmann and Karl Kling in their Mercedes-Benz 300 SLRs.
Moss was relying entirely on Jenkinson's pace notes (now used ubiquitously in modern rallying) that they had spent months before the race compiling while driving a 300SL on the route.
Initially the race wasn't in favor of the Mercedes duo, as Eugenio Castellotti streaked away from the field in his privately entered Ferrari 735 LM with its powerful 4.4-litre engine.
Taruffi, who was the last driver to leave Brescia had averaged a stunning 130 mph on the sprint down to Pescara, shattering all previous Mille Miglia speed records with his 376 S. At this time, only a thin margin now separated the lead two cars as they refuelled, with Moss snatching the advantage thanks to a quicker stop.
When Moss and Jenkinson reached this town, they were leading by 35 seconds, followed by Herrmann, Taruffi, Fangio and Kling - All the Mercedes cars entered were running 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th.
[4][5] The mountainous and twisty 140 mile (227 km) route from Rome to the next time control in Siena was a race of attrition.
After Florence was Bologna, 65 miles (107 km) away, through the fearsome Futa Pass in Tuscany - one of the most difficult parts of this race.
When Moss and Jenkinson reached Bologna, they had crossed the Futa in 1 hour 1 minute- but had broken the record set by Giannino Marzotto in 1953.
