1956 Mille Miglia

The 23. edizione Mille Miglia was an auto race held on a 992.332 mile (1597 km) course made up entirely of public roads around Italy, mostly on the outer parts of the country on 28–29 April 1956.

[1] Following Daimler Benz AG and Lancia both withdrawing from motor sport at the end of 1955, this left the World Sportscar Championship wide open for Ferrari to regain the title their held in 1953 and 1954.

Scuderia Ferrari brought five cars: two 290 MMs for Castellotti and Fangio, two 860 Monzas for Collins and Musso, with a 250 GT SWB for Olivier Gendebien.

Despite this plan Maserati of Taruffi took the lead between Ravenna and Forlì, but problems with wet brakes forced him to stop at Savignano sul Rubicone.

[4][3] However, the event was marred by many severe accidents resulting in 6 deaths and 14 people injured, largely due to heavy rain throughout Italy in the early hours of the race.

In spite of the attempt by the organisers to make the event safer, there were still a number of fatal accidents, including one that resulted in the death of the Englishman, John Heath.

Another fatality occurred in the small town of Montemarciano on the Adriatic coast 260 miles (416 km) into the race, when the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, driven by the German pairing of Helmut Busch and Wolfgang Piwco.

At the time of the accident, Piwco was driving when the car hit a wall, killing him instantly, while Busch suffered only minor injuries, also one spectator injured.

A third accident also claimed the life of Swiss driver Max Berney who was killed just outside Ravenna after his Alfa rolled after having hit a house in pouring rain at four o' clock in the morning.

An Alfa Romeo 1900 driven by Aldo Giacobi went off the road barely 20 miles into the race- and 2 spectators, Egidio Pincella and Igino Leoncelli were both killed on impact.

Later on in Pescara 400 miles (640 km) into the race a Stanguellini 750 Sport driven by Giorgio Cecchini hit and killed spectator Guerrino Sciarra.