The Gran Premio Nuvolari (English: Nuvolari Grand Prix) was a car race on open streets that was run in northern Italy in from 1954 to 1957. In 1991 it was reborn as an international vintage car race using the same name. [1]
The Gran Premio Nuvolari (English: Nuvolari Grand Prix) was a car race on open streets that was run in northern Italy in from 1954 to 1957. In 1991 it was reborn as an international vintage car race using the same name. [1]
The race began as a commemoration of racing pilot Tazio Nuvolari, who died on 11 August 1953. [2] His death shocked motor sports community, including the organizers of the existing 1000 mile race Mille Miglia . The commemorative road race formed the final part of the Mille Miglia and had its starting point in Mantua, went through the Po Valley, over Cremona, to the finish in Brescia.
In 1955, the British racing driver Stirling Moss completed the Gran Premio Nuvolari with his navigator Dennis Jenkinson in a Mercedes SLR with the starting number 722 in just 39 minutes and 54 seconds with an average speed of 198.496 kilometers per hour. [3] In 1957 the Italian government banned the Mille Miglia and Nuvolari road races, and they were no longer run.
The members of the Mantovan Mantova Corse (Motorsportclub) Luca Bergamaschi, Marco Marani, Fabio Novelle and Claudio Rossi expanded and improved the Tazio Nuvolari-Museum in Mantova. [4] With the sponsorship of the Swiss watchmaking company Eberhard & Co., which designed a special watch model [5] to honor Tazio Nuvolari, the Gran Premio Nuvolari was rerun for the first time in 1991.
The route changes annually, starting and finishing in Mantua. It includes historic racetracks like the Autodromo Imola, as well as the cities of Rimini, Siena, and Ferrara. [6] [7]
Meanwhile, the event and its rating counted for Italian championship of classic car rally events. [8] The Gran Premio Nuvolari has since become an international event featuring classic cars in compliance with the F.I.A. / F.I.V.A. / C.S.A.I. regulations. [9]
Teams from 16 nations with their vintage cars built before 1969 participate in a total of more than 70 races covering more than 1,000 kilometers. In the event, not only is over all speed is important, but also precise compliance with the specified time for each stage. [10]
Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari was an Italian racing driver. He first raced motorcycles and then concentrated on sports cars and single-seaters. Originally of Mantua, he was nicknamed Il Mantovano Volante and Nivola ("Cloud"). His victories—72 major races, 150 in all—included 24 Grands Prix, five Coppa Cianos, two Mille Miglias, two Targa Florios, two RAC Tourist Trophies, a Le Mans 24-hour race, and a European Championship in Grand Prix racing. Ferdinand Porsche called him "the greatest driver of the past, the present, and the future".
The Mille Miglia was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi. It took place in Italy 24 times from 1927 to 1957.
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Eugenio Castellotti was a Formula One driver from Italy.
Felice Bonetto was a courageous racing driver who earned the nickname Il Pirata.
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Mario Mazzacurati was an Italian engineer and auto racer driver active in South Africa, winner of the 1936 South African Grand Prix in Bugatti cars with pseudonym Mario Massacuratti.
Ferdinando "Nando" Minoia was an Italian racing driver with an exceptionally long, distinguished and varied career. In 1907, he won the Coppa Florio driving an Isotta Fraschini. In 1923, he drove the world’s first mid-engine Grand Prix car, the Benz Tropfenwagen. In 1927, he won the inaugural Mille Miglia driving an OM. Finally, in 1931 he became the first European Champion, driving for Alfa Romeo, but without winning a single event.
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Baroness Maria Antonietta Avanzo was the first Italian female racetrack driver. Widley regarded as "the most famous Italian woman racing driver of the inter-war period", she competed in numerous events throughout her career, including the Targa Florio and the Mille Miglia. In 1921, she famously drove a twelve-cylinder Packard 299 on the beach of the island of Fanø, in Denmark. All through her career she fought for the right to compete to motor racing events – until then largely reserved to men – and became an activist for women equality and a symbol of early feminism.
The 1954 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.
The 24. edizione Mille Miglia was an auto race held on a course totalling 992.332 miles (1,597.004 km), made up entirely of public roads around Italy, mostly on the outer parts of the country on 11–12 May 1957. The route was based on a round trip between Brescia and Rome, with start/finish in Brescia. It was the 3rd round of the 1957 World Sportscar Championship season.
The following is an overview of the events of 1953 in motorsport including the major racing events, motorsport venues that were opened and closed during a year, championships and non-championship events that were established and disestablished in a year, and births and deaths of racing drivers and other motorsport people.