History has a habit of repeating itself, and it did so at the 2010 Mille Miglia this May, when BMW duplicated its success of 70 years ago. That 1940 event was a little different from its predecessors, however, as the rest of the world was at war when it took place. The race was also no longer a hell-bent-for-leather dash from Brescia to Rome and back, but nine laps of a Brescia-Cremona-Mantua-Brescia 103-mile road circuit, won by Baron Huschke von Hanstein and Walter Baumer in a BMW 328. The 2010 Mille Miglia was different again, because it was not even a watered-down road race, but a regularity event. It was, however, won by a BMW 328, this time driven by Italian businessman Giuliano Cané and his wife, Lucia Galliani. Sure enough, another BMW 328 came 3rd—just like in 1940—driven by Enzo Ciravolo and Maria Leitner. For Cané and Galliani, it was their 10th victory in this more sedate Brescia-Rome-Brescia commemoration run, an incredible achievement.
The couple was presented their trophies by the Italian government’s Minister of Education, Mariastella Gelmini, who said, “It is with real pleasure that I bring greetings and the appreciation of the Italian government to the participants in the 2010 Mille Miglia, and to its organizing committee in appreciation of the important work you are doing of enhancing Italian excellence in the world by the promotion of the Mille Miglia brand.”
Bristling with trophies on the stage at the Brescia Teatro Grande, Cané told how he and his wife worked hard to keep 1st place, saying gallantly: “My wife was at my side as co-driver, and it was with her invaluable help that we were able to achieve this result.”
Second came three-time winners Luciano Viaro and American Mark Gessler in an Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Gran Sport.
The 2010 Mille Miglia attracted the usual assortment of glitterati, ranging from well-formed Italian actresses and showgirls anxious for their moment of glory, to showbiz folk like Pink Floyd drummer and renowned vintage car collector Nick Mason in a Frazer Nash Le Mans replica, leader of Jamiroquai Jason Kay driving a 1954 Maserati A6G, and Jim Gianopoulos, CEO of 20th Century Fox, in an Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS. The world of motor sport did its bit with 24 Hours of Le Mans and Targa Florio winner Gijs van Lennep driving with Indianapolis 500 victor Arie Luyendijk in a Porsche 550-1500 RS, Mika Hakkinen with David Coulthard, and Sir Jackie Stewart with his son Paul in Mercedes-Benz 300 SLs, World Sports Car Championship star Jochen Mass with double World Rally Champion Miki Biasion, and the list goes on.
One of the new features of this year’s event was called the Ferrari Tribute to the Mille Miglia. This comprised an incredible band of 130 Ferraris, ranging from a 1958 250 GT Tour de France and a 1964 250 LM, to F40s, F50s, Enzo Ferraris, F430s, 599 GTB Fioranos, Californias, and 612 Scagliettis that roared along the Mille Miglia’s roads an hour before the first competitors as a sort of advance guard. Their route-opening passage produced a spine-tingling symphony of delicious engine notes and exhaust noises, a remarkable squadron of astoundingly dramatic machinery.
The route was the usual figure of eight with Bologna as the middle bit through which the competitors passed both going to and coming back from Rome. The rest included many of the famous old names through which the original Mille Miglia howled between 1927 and 1957: Desenzano, Nuvolari’s birthplace of Castel d’Ario, Spoleto, Rieti, Rome of course, Viterbo, Florence, Modena, Cremona and back to Brescia.
by Robert Newman
