Sunday 26th April 1953

The Mille Miglia, the second round of the 1953 F.I.A. World Sportscar Championship, was held on public roads between Brescia and Rome, with start/finish, in Brescia. A total of 577 cars were entered 1953 running of the Mille Miglia, across eight classes based on engine sizes, ranging from up to 750cc to over 2.0 litre, for both Touring Cars and Sport Cars. Of these, 490 cars started the event. Although this not strictly a race against each other, this was race against the clock, as 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 Juan-Manuel Fangio’s car had the number 602, he left Brescia at 6:02am, while the first cars had started late in the evening on the previous day.The race came down to a battle between Juan Manuel Fangio’s 3.6 liter Alfa and wealthy privateer Giannino Marzotto’s 4.1 liter Ferrari. When Fangio broke a track rod mount heading into Bologna, Marzotto charged ahead and went on to win.