This morning, Brescia (IT) is buzzing. The last sport- and technical checks are carried out as we speak, tension rises among drivers and co-drivers. At 2 pm the race starts; postponed from 13. May due to COVID-19, today Mille Miglia 2020 is a go.

The Mille Miglia race is one of the most appealing open-road endurance races of yesteryear in Italy and worldwide, right there with the famous endurance races like the Targa Florio and the Carrera Panamericana . It was established in 1927 by petrolhead counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi. The round trip route started and finished in Brescia and turning point was Rome. The course was figure-eight shaped and roughly 1500 km long — or a thousand Roman miles. It took place twenty-four times until 1957, when the sports- and race cars of that era were flagged down for the last time because of two fatal crashes.

From 1958 to 1961, the event resumed as a rallying-like round trip at legal speeds with a few special stages driven at full speed, but this was discontinued also. Since 1977, the name was revived as the Mille Miglia Storica, a parade for pre-1957 cars that takes several days.

All you need to know about the Mille Miglia 2020 is to be found on the Mille Miglia 2020 website, for instance the starting list and the route which will be driven clockwise.

Today, the race will start leaving from Brescia. The competing cars will drive along Lake Garda, passing through Desenzano (BS) and Sirmione (BS) then through Villafranca di Verona, Mantova, Ferrara and Ravenna, until the leg finish line is passed in Cervia – Milano Marittima (RA). Stay tuned, updates will follow in the next few days until 25. October when the cars return to Brescia.