1954 Mille Miglia

Three Lancia D24 at start at Brescia on 1 May 1954. Nearest is #540 Eugenio Castellotti, in the middle is #602 Alberto Ascari and in the back #541 Gino Valenzano.

Excited spectators as Alberto Ascari wins in his Lancia D24.

This Ferrari 500 Mondial got 2nd place, driven by Vittorio Marzotto

Umberto Maglioli in his Ferrari 375 Plus at start in Brescia

The 1954 Mille Miglia (officially XXI Mille Miglia ), was a motor race open to Sports Cars, GT cars and Touring Cars. It was the 21st Mille Miglia and the third race of the 1954 World Sportscar Championship. The race was held on the public roads of Italy on 2 May 1954 using a route based on a round trip between Brescia and Rome, with the start and finish in Brescia. It was won by Alberto Ascari driving a Lancia D24.

As in previous year, the event is not strictly a race against each other, as is a race against the clock. The cars are released at one-minute intervals with the larger professional class cars going before the slower cars, in the Mille Miglia, however the smaller displacement slower cars started first. Each car number related to their allocated start time. For example, Giuseppe Farina’s car had the number 606, he left Brescia at 6:06 am, while the first cars had started late in the evening on the previous day.

The previous August, Italian racing legend Tazio Nuvolari died. As a mark of respect, the route of this race, near it finish would pass through Mantua, where he was a resident.

Report

Entry

A total of 483 cars were entered for the event, across nine classes based on engine sizes, ranging from up to 750cc to over 2.0 litre, for Grand Touring Cars, Touring Cars and Sport Cars. Of these, 378 cars started the event.

Fresh from their loss in Florida at the 12 Hours of Sebring, Lancia entered in force with four newly revised D24 cars, these were piloted by Piero Taruffi, Alberto Ascari, Eugenio Castellotti and Gino Valenzano. The cars were modified by race car designer Vittorio Jano. These enhancements featured an enlarge version of their V6 engine, so that could produce 265 bhp.

Ferrari for their part arrived with four 300 bhp 4.9 litre, Ferrari 375 Plus’s for Giuseppe Farina, Umberto Maglioli, Giannino Marzotto and his brother Paolo Marzotto. For 1954, the Mille Miglia was a round of the World Sports Car Championship; the home teams faced strong challengers. From Great Britain, came Aston Martin and Austin-Healey, and West Germany sent Porsches.

Also amongst the entry was the four-time winner, Clemente Biondetti, but by the time of the race, he was very sick man, fighting cancer, and only had a few months left to live.

Race

The race started at 21:01 on 1 May, when Domenico Stragliotto and Adolfo Montorio departed Brescia in their Iso Isetta. The faster cars would leave the following morning, when conditions were foggy mixed with little rain. After nine and half hours, all the cars were on their way to Rome.

The Lancias took the early lead, with Taruffi's D24 controlling the pace, averaging 108.9 mph, on the opening stages into Ravenna, with a lead of 90 seconds, over Ascari and Castellotti. The Ferrari of Maglioli was back in fourth. On the run into Rome, the Lancia of Castellotti developed distributor problems, and was forced into retirement, moving Maglioli into third. Further trouble hit the Lancia of Taruffi, when his sprung an oil leak and he soon retired. Ascari had taken it easy in the early stages, now assumed the lead.

On the run back to Brescia, Ascari's Lancia suffered a throttle spring return failure, and this was temporarily replaced by a rubber band. This and other problems started to affect the Lancia and by the time Ascari reached Florence, he had enough and wanted to retire from the event. It was only after a long stop for repairs, he was persuaded to continue. By Bologna, all the top Scuderia Ferrari cars were out, and the path was clear for Ascari to win.

For Ferrari, they had not lost a Mille Miglia since 1947, but this they were sounded thrashed by the team from Torino, with Ascari, winning in a time of 11hr 26:10mins., averaging a speed of 72.80 mph. 33:51mins adrift in second place was Ferrari 500 Mondial of Vittorio Marzotto, who salvaged some honour for Maranello marque with second place and a class win. The third different car on the podium was the Maserati of Musso. Another Ferrari came home in fourth, driven by Biondetti, in what was to be his last Mille Miglia; he was lifted exhausted from the car at the finish.

With the British attack failing to make it back to Brescia, it was left to the Germans to provide some opposition to the Italian teams. Encountering a lowered gate at a railway crossing, the Porsche driver, Hans Herrmann drove his low 550 Spyder under it, narrowly missing an express train. This daring act gave Porsche a first in class and an amazing sixth overall.

The event was marred by two fatal accidents, which cost the French driver, Andre Pouschol his life and that of his co-driver F. Saisse and eight spectators injured when his Citroën 15 Six crashed into a signpost near Vicenza. The second accident cost the Italian navigator, S. Dal Cin his life when F. Mancini crashed his Maserati A6GCS.

Classification

Mille Miglia

Of the 378 starters, 182 were classified as finishers. Therefore, only a selection of notably racers has been listed below.

Class Winners are in Bold text.

Pos.	No.	Class	Driver(s)		Entrant	Car - Engine	Time	Reason Out
1st	602	S+2.0	Alberto Ascari		Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D24	11hr 26:10
2nd	523	S2.0	Vittorio Marzotto		Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 500 Mondial	12hr 00:01
3rd	500	S2.0	Luigi Musso	Augusto Zocca	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati A6GCS/53	12hr 00:10
4th	601	S+2.0	Clemente Biondetti		Clemente Biondetti	Ferrari 250 MM Morelli Spider	12hr 15:36
5th	506	S2.0	Bruno Venezian	Massimo Orlandi	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati A6GCS	12hr 27:43
6th	351	S1.5	Hans Herrmann	Herbert Linge	Porsche	Porsche 550 Spyder	12hr 35:44
7th	440	GT+1.5	Gugliemo Serafini	Carlo Mancini	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia Aurelia B20	12hr 47:12
8th	326	T+1.3	Piero Carinin	A. Artesiani		Alfa Romeo 1900TI	12hr 51:52
9th	439	GT+1.5	Carlo Leto di Priolo	Salvatore Leto dr Prilol		Fiat 8V Zagato	12hr 52.38
10th	343	S1.5	Giulio Cabianca			O.S.C.A. MT4 1500	12hr 55:08
11th	305	T+1.3	Mario Della Favera	R. Artusi		Alfa Romeo 1900TI	12hr 56:10
12th	428	GT+1.5	Paolo Petrobelli	Evelino Cremonesi		Lancia Aurelia B20	13hr 09:42
13th	553	S+2.0	Ilfo Minzoni	Giovannu Brinci		Ferrari 212 Export	13hr 10:34
14th	516	S2.0	Franco Cortese	E. Perrucchini		Ferrari 500 Mondial	13hr 12:38
15th	512	S2.0	Enrico Sterzi	O. Rossi		Ferrari 500 Mondial Pinin Farina Spyder	13hr 14:33
16th	425	GT+1.5	Ferdinando Gatta	Giuseppe Azzini		Lancia Aurelia B20	13hr 16:06
17th	430	GT+1.5	Franco Ribaldi	Romano Basili		Lancia Aurelia B20	13hr 19:49
18th	416	GT+1.5	Pierpaolo Poillucci	Manilo Poillucci		Fiat 8V	13hr 25.29
19th	534	S+2.0	Innocente Baggio	E. Berni		Ferrari 375 MM Berlinetta	13hr 31:38
20th	524	S2.0	Luigi Oiotti	Bruno Cavallari		O.S.C.A. MT4 1100	13hr 31:52
21st	411	GT+1.5	Olivier Gendebien	Charles Fraikin	Olivier Gendebien	Jaguar XK120	13hr 34:03
22nd	312	T+1.3	Lino Franceschetti	Polo Meo		Alfa Romeo 1900TI	13hr 38:12
23rd	550	S+2.0	Lance Macklin			Austin-Healey 100	13hr 38:34
24th	433	GT+1.5	Eugenio Lubich	Luigi Villotti		Lancia Aurelia B20	13hr 40:39
25th	444	GT+1.5	Piero Siena	Antonio Negri Bevilacqua		Lancia Aurelia B20	13hr 41:55
26th	431	S2.0	Ottavio Randaccio	P. E. Serboli		Lancia Aurelia	13hr 42:45
27th	528	S2.0	Maurice Gatsonides	W. Ken Richardson		Triumph TR2	13hr 52:31
28th	317	T+1.3	Siro Sbraci	Giudizi		Alfa Romeo 1900TI	13hr 53:12s.
29th	229	GT1.5	Richard von Frankenberg	Heinrich Sauter	Porsche	Porsche 356 1500 Super	13hr 53:50
30th	331	T+1.3	Franco Marenghi	Franco Concari		Alfa Romeo 1900 TI	14hr 00:53
33rd	228	GT1.5	Walter Hampel	Wolfgang von Trips	Porsche	Porsche 356 1300 Super	14hr 11:23
34th	219	GT1.5	Max Nathan	Helmut Glöckler		Porsche 356 1300 Super	14hr 13:14
36th	424	GT+1.5	Michel Parsy	Georges Guyot		Jaguar XK120	14hr 17:00
41st	156	T1.3	Ersilio Mandrini	M. Ferraris		Fiat 1100/103 TV	14hr 34:35
52nd	457	S2.0	Consalvo Sanesi	Giuseppe Cagna		Alfa Romeo 1900 TI	14hr 46:06
55th	349	S1.5	Gilberte Thirion	Annie Bousquet	Thirion/Bousquet	Gordini T15S	14hr 49:47
65th	2320	S750	René Phillippe Faure	Claude Storez		DB HBR Panhard	15hr 03:16
66th	2206	T750	Jean Rédélé	Louis Pons		Renault 4CV	15hr 04:33
86th	028	T1.3	Roberto Lippi	V. Galenda		Fiat 1100/103	15hr 35:12
94th	507	S2.0	Leslie Brooke	Jack Fairman		Triumph TR2	15hr 42:16
100th	2137	T750	Marino Guarnieri	Danilo Brancalion		Renault 4CV	15hr 53:41
159th	2341	S750	Marino Brandoli	Johnny Claes		Marino-Fiat Coupe	18hr 49:59
177th	2101	T750	Domenico Stragliotto	Adolfo Montorio		Iso Isetta	22hr 10:02
DNF	253	T+1.3	Andre Pouschol	F. Saisse		Citroën 15 Six		Fatal Accident
DNF	409	S1.5	Nello Pagani		Giacomo Pagani	Stanguellini Bialbero		DNF
DNF	519	S2.0	F. Mancini	S. Dal Cin		Maserati A6GCS	6hr 31:38	Fatal Accident – Dal Cin
DNF	526	S+2.0	Paolo Marzotto	Marino Marini	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375 Plus	5hr 45:57	Accident
DNF	538	S+2.0	Gianni Marzotto	Gioia Tortima	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375 Plus		Driver illness
DNF	539	S+2.0	Reg Parnell	Louis Klementaski	David Brown	Aston Martin DB3S		Accident
DNF	540	S+2.0	Eugenio Castellotti		Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D24		Distributor
DNF	541	S+2.0	Gino Valenzano		Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D24		Accident
DNF	545	S+2.0	Umberto Maglioli		Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375 Plus	5hr 41:51	Accident
DNF	546	S+2.0	Piero Scotti		Piero Scotti	Ferrari 375 Plus	6hr 12:53	Accident
DNF	547	S+2.0	Piero Taruffi		Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D24	5hr 30:19	Oil loss
DNF	548	S+2.0	Franco Bordoni	Cetti Sarbelloni	Franco Bordoni	Gordini T24S		Accident
DNF	549	S+2.0	Gerino Gerini	Luciano Donazzolo		Ferrari 250 MM		DNF
DNF	558	S+2.0	Enrico Anselmi			Lancia Aurelia B20		DNF
DNF	606	S+2.0	Tommy Wisdom	Mortimer Morris-Goodall	Donald Healey	Austin-Healey 100	8hr 02:30	DNF
DNF	547	S+2.0	Louis Chiron		Donald Healey	Austin-Healey 100		Brake Pipe
DNF	606	S+2.0	Giuseppe Farina		Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375 Plus		Accident
DNF	609	S+2.0	Peter Collins	Pat Griffith	David Brown	Aston Martin DB3S	6hr 08:45	Accident
DNF	613	S+2.0	George Abecassis	Denis Jenkinson	H. W. Motors	HWM Jaguar		Shock absorber
DNF	2215	T750	Robert Manzon	Maurice Foulgoc		Renault 4CV		DNF
DNF	2224	T750	Guy Monraisse	Jacques Féret		Renault 4CV	8hr 31:43	DNF

Class Winners

Class	Winners
Vetture Sport oltre 2000	602	Lancia D24	Ascari
Vetture Sports 2000	523	Ferrari 500 Mondial	V. Marzotto
Vetture Sports 1500	351	Porsche 550 Spyder	Herrmann / Linge
Vetture Sports 750	2320	DB HBR Panhard	Faure / Storez
Gran Turismo oltre 1500	440	Lancia Aurelia B20	Serafini / Mancini
Gran Turismo fino 1500	229	Porsche 356 1500 Super	von Frankenberg / Sauter
Turismo Serie Speciale +1300	326	Alfa Romeo 1900 TI	Carini / Artesiani
Turismo Serie Speciale 1300	156	Fiat 1100/103 TV	Mandrini / Ferraris
Turismo Serie Speciale 750	2206	Renault 4CV	Rédélé / Pons

Standings after the race

Pos	Championship	Points
1=	Ferrari	14
	Lancia	14
3	Osca	8
4	Maserati	5
5=	Aston Martin	4
	Austin-Healey	4

• Note: Only the top five positions are included in this set of standings.
  Championship points were awarded for the first six places in each race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1. Manufacturers were only awarded points for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars. Only the best 4 results out of the 6 races could be retained by each manufacturer.

Further reading

• Anthony Pritchard. The Mille Miglia: The World’s Greatest Road Race. J H Haynes & Co Ltd. ISBN 978-1844251391
• Leonardo Acerbi. Mille Miglia Story 1927-1957. Giorgio Nada Editore. ISBN 978-8879115490