(click chart for larger version)
As I have mentioned before, the 1956 Mille Miglia was the serious break-through for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint. That was when the Veloce model came out and it started winning races all over Europe and soon also on the North American scene. I sat down and charted the positions all the way through the 1,600 km of the 1957 race for the 1300 GT class. I got all intermediate times from lists in the book "Mille Miglia 1957, Le Classi Minori", and was able to produce the above chart in an Excel spreadsheet. Let's look into some details:
The 1957 route - red cities are timed in the above chart.
The start at Brescia was seeded. As you probably know the cars were numbered by their starting time (103 was 01:03 in the night) and the fastest cars started later - like for instance when Stirling Moss famously started at 07:22 in the morning and drove in daylight all the way back to Brescia and arrived 10 hours 7 minutes later, still in daylight. As is clearly visible in the chart, the seeding of the 43 starting cars in the 1300 GT class wasn't done particularly well. The eventual winner Convert #105 started 22-from-fastest although he was fairly known and had taken part in the 1956 MM. He surged up though the placings all the way down to Roma where he was P3 and after Bologna he took P1 - which he held until the finish at Brescia in the afternoon.
Frenchman Convert and his co-driver Martin during the night.
Negotiating a fast downhill corner somewhere on the route.
Ingenere Laureati in car #122 started from Brescia much later as 8th-best seeded and ran more cautiously across the northern plain to Padova where he fell back to P14. But then he sped up and took the lead after Pescara when the Mille Miglia turned in-land and up into the Abruzzo hills. He held the lead until Convert overtook after Bologna. Laureti ran solo and had done the whole 1,600 km with an average of 125 km/h.The Ravenna-to-Pescara stretch was run at a 145 km/h average from 03:33 to 05:48 while the sun came up over the adriatic sea.
Ing. Laureti has the engine oil topped up at an early morning stop-over.
The Greek car #102 from Athens with Spiliotakis also ran a well managed race starting from P25 in Brescia and rising steadily on the way down the adriatic coast. You can say that all the way from Ravenna they were in serious contention for a win; well done for a foreigner! Not all competitors had opportunity to gather information about standings when they punched in at control posts. First of all it would have been difficult if you were an early car and secondly you would have to have crew to calculate the positions - and you would have to sacrifice time to just grasp the information. Most drivers just charged on, and did their best.
Spiliotakis and Zanonos rushing down from the Raticosa pass at around noon.
Bruno and Paolo Grazioli immediately stormed through Verona and their home town of Vicenza to P1 at Padova after having done the first stretch at 150 km/h. They continued all the way around Italy in good style and ended up P4 after having sitting at P2 across from Pescara to Roma. Bruno did all the driving and little brother Paolo participated incognito (as it is noted in the inscription form). It can also be read from the inscription that Bruno had raced since 1954 and had placed well in various hillclimbs and had come home P7 in the 1956 MM.
Bruno Grazioli at the driver's door while a mechanic checks tire pressure the day before at Piazza delle Vittoria.
Racing two other Giuliettas down from Popoli - the car in front is #107 whom they had raced all the way down the coast.
P5 was Lanzini in car #117. They seem to have had a quite eventless race positioning themselves at around P3 to P6 all the way around the route, although they actually averaged 159 km/h on the fast Mantova-Brescia stretch - also known as the Coppa Tazio Nuvolari, where everybody wanted to be fast - to honor the ace who had died four years earlier..
Even the finish was calm and easy for the Lanzini car!
Now, let's turn our attention to some of the less fortunate competitors in the 1957 Mille Miglia race: For instance the two last starters in the 1300 GT class. At 01:28 Georges Burggraf from Grenoble, who ran alone and seemed to have had no experience in racing at all - probably with an all new Giulietta SV, started and fell back to P33 at Padova before he retired before reaching Ravenna. That seeding sure wasn't right, but he was probably a late entrant. One minute earlier another Giulietta SV with Parisian Jean Caracciolo started solo and ran almost all the way to Rome while dropping terribly down the charts and retiring while negotiating the Abruzzo hills at L'Aquila.
Monsieur Burggraf in great confidence at the start - last of the 1300 GT cars.
Monsieur Caracciolo at Popoli; looking fine just before he retired around 7 in the morning.
Another unfortunate entrant was car #125 Guarneri. He started really well and lay P2 at Pescara after a steady race down the adriatic coast; perfectly positioned for a win, because as legend tells us, 'he who leads at Rome will never win at Brescia'. But crossing over to Rome something went terribly wrong, causing him to fall back to P17 and only managing to climb back and maintain a P15.
Carlo Guarneri at scrutineering the day before in Brescia.
On the starting ramp - still with missing front grille.
One car is (obviously) of great interest to me: Car #042, Daniele Pistoja. He had placed P4 in 1955 in the crazy race with more than 400 participants and P2 in 1956; both years driving an Alfa Romeo 1900 TI - both places in the 2000cc class. This time he had one of the new Giulietta Sprint Veloces; a nice blue one. It looks like he did very well across the north, coming in at P12 in Padova and rising to P3 at L'Aquila. He ran solo and would have overtaken a lot of competitors in the smaller classes. But starting as the second car in the 1300 GT class it would have taken some time before he was overtaken by his immediate competitors?! Apparently he ran into trouble on the Futa or Raticosa pass after Firenze; before reaching Bologna where he was down to P17, and falling further to P21 at Piacenza. He also ended up at that position - not quite the result he would have expected after switching the sturdy 1900 Berlina for an agile Giulietta essevu, I suppose?
But; Oh - to have been part of it all ...
Signore Pistoja in the shiny new sports racer.
Arriving at Grottarossa near Rome placed P4.
Taking out time to stretch legs at 07:22 in the morning.
The book - very good indeed, there are two more books about the 1957 classes.
My video about the 1956 and 1957 races.