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The Axis Grand Prix: Reinventing the Mille Miglia in 1940 · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Brake Fix's History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part
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by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the
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Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of
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Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.
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The Axis GP, the reinvention of the Mille Miglia in 1940 by Paul Baxa.
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Paul Baksa is a professor of history at Ave Maria University in Florida.
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Parts of his most recent book, Motorsport and Fascism, Living Dangerously,
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published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2022, the 1940 Mille Miglia is an
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anomaly in the long history of the race.
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The previous classic editions held between 1927 and 1938 were run on a
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thousand mile figure of eight open road course covering half of Italy.
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During that time, it had become Italy's most important motor race and one that was
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exploited by Mussolini's fascist regime.
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After a major tragedy in 1938, the race was reinvented in 1940 and bore
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scant resemblance to the original.
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This paper examines how the race was used by the regime to exalt the Axis
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Alliance while at the same time making great efforts to link it to its more
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illustrious preceding additions.
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Our next speaker, Professor Paul Baxham of Amory University.
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I have a great appreciation for Paul, and I'm glad he's back, and I'm
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looking forward to this presentation.
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So, Paul, thank you.
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Thank you, Don.
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It's a great pleasure to be back.
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It's been about five years.
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I'm really happy to be back with you.
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Again, it's great to see how the symposium has grown so much over the years.
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During the running of the 1938 Mila Mila, an accident killed ten
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spectators, including several children.
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One day later, the Italian newspapers ran a press release from the Italian
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government that read quote with the 12th edition Which has cost many lives
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the cycle of the Mille Miglia on the ordinary roads of metropolitan centers
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is finished With this short statement Italy's most important motor race seemed
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to be over first run in 1927 the Mille Miglia had quickly become one of Italy's
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three major sporting events next to the cycling Giro d'Italia and the soccer
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championship Unlike these other events, the Mille Miglia was a unique product of
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the fascist era that claimed to embody fascist values and played a key role in
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promoting Mussolini's regime as one of modernity and technological progress.
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The sudden pulling of the plug thus came as a surprise, considering that
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ten years previously, a similar accident during the Italian Grand Prix at
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Monza, that killed over 20 spectators.
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On that occasion, the fascist regime rejected calls to ban motor racing,
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claiming that accidents and loss of life were the price paid for
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progress and a reminder that fascism was all about living dangerously.
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By 1938, however, circumstances had changed.
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Back in the 1920s, Mussolini was in the process of installing a dictatorship
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whereby fascism was promoted through its violent and dynamic nature.
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Motorsport proved an effective vehicle for fascists eager to demonstrate the
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new Italy that they wanted to create.
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In 1938, fascism was now in its regime phase, where it needed to
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protect its firm grasp on Italians.
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One of the regime's persistent claims was that the Mille Miglia proved
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fascism's ability to bring discipline and order to the Italian peninsula.
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The fact that the race had never had such an accident in its previous
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editions was a point of pride for a regime that was now firmly established.
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The accident at Bologna threatened to give the lie to these claims.
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Therefore, the race needed to be axed.
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In a certain sense, the Mille Miglia was a victim of its own success.
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The fact that no serious accident had ever occurred before 38 allowed the regime to
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boast that fascism had imposed discipline on Italians and that the new roads
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facilitated increasingly powerful racing cars to compete safely on open roads.
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When the race was first conceived in 1927, it was intended to be a test of
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endurance for Italian made touring cars.
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The organizers hoped that the race would not only stimulate the Italian automotive
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sector, But also encourage the state to keep improving the country's road network.
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It didn't take long for the event to become all about speed and the
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latest high performance technology.
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As early as the second edition in 1928, several cars were supercharged.
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Technology that most automakers were still reluctant to use for regular touring cars.
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By the mid 1930s, the winning cars of the Mille Miglia were nothing more
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than thinly disguised Grand Prix cars.
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As the race grew in popularity, it became a contest between Grand Prix
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aces like Tadzio Nuvolati and Achille Varzi, driving competing Alfa Romeos.
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In the meantime, fascism's cult of speed and progress was given full
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expression in a race that attracted celebrities and political figures.
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The fascist party secretary was the honorary starter, and key figures in the
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regime appeared at the Rome checkpoint.
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Mussolini donated a cup in his name for the driver able to cover the Brescia
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to Rome leg in the fastest time.
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In 1936, defying the League of Nations embargo on Italy due to
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the Ethiopian War, the race was promoted in the service of autarchy.
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with some cars using alternative fuels.
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The sudden death of the 1938 thus ended an event that was important to
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fascism's self image and a blow to Italian motorsport at a time when Italian
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cars were being trounced on the Grand Prix circuits by the Silver Arrows.
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Therefore, the Mille Miglia had to be revived in some new shape or form.
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An alternative was floated for a race to be run in the Italian
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colony at Libya, but this would have taken it far away from Brescia.
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Ultimately, a solution was found to hold a nine lap race on closed
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public roads linking Brescia.
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Cremona and Monto on a circuit measuring 165 kilometers or 102.5 miles.
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The day chosen for the race was April 28th, 1940, and the runup to
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the event the organizers needed to convince the Motorsport community
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that this edition, despite its obvious difference to the previous races,
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was a new and revived mil milia.
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It also needed to persuade the regime that the fascist values embodied in
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the classic event would be maintained.
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In short, the Mille Miglia had to be reinvented as a sporting
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and as a political event.
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The 1940 Mille Miglia is an anomaly.
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To begin with, it was officially called the first edition of the
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Gran Premio di Brescia, which you can see on the poster of the event.
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A title that could easily lead people to believe that this was an inaugural race
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and not a continuation of a classic race.
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Furthermore, one of the race's original organizers, Giovanni Canestrini, refused
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to be involved with this new event.
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As well as being one of the legendary four musketeers who invented the
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race, Canestrini was also Italy's leading motorsport journalist.
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It was largely through his reporting in the Gazzetta dello Sport that the Mille
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Miglia was elevated to legendary status.
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Canestrini never considered the 1940 race to be a legitimate Mille Miglia,
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writing in his 1967 memoir that holding the race on a closed course betrayed
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the spirit of the classic event.
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Despite this denunciation, Canestrini did include the results of the race
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in the appendix of his book, as well as some photographs, thus recognizing
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it as an official millimilia, despite his own personal views.
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Canestrini's views contributed to the debate on what constituted
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the essence of the millimilia.
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For him, it was the figure of an open road course that covered half of Italy.
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Many in Italy would have agreed that this was the race's most distinctive feature.
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The challenge for the organizers was to convince the public that the new
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edition was legitimate despite the sacrificing of its most notable feature.
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This would prove difficult since the race's original justification in 1927 was
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that the Mille Miglia was reviving the old open road races that had ended with
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the disastrous Paris Madrid race of 1903.
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It didn't help matters that the official race program since the early 30s included
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large inserts on the famous cities that the race passed through, such as
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Florence, Rome, Bologna, and Venice.
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The Mille Miglia had effectively become motorsports version of the
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cycling Giro d'Italia, the only difference being that the course did
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not change much from year to year.
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Photographs of the race included important landmarks, such as the
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Piazza Michelangelo in Florence or the Piazzale Milvio in Rome.
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The course also served to highlight public works projects carried out by the fascist
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regime, such as the Littorio Bridge, which connected Venice to the mainland.
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The spectacular complex of fascist architecture around the Piazza Vittoria.
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The ill fated 1938 race even included a lengthy stretch of the new Autostrada
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connecting Florence to the sea, a feature that accounted for the sharp
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increase in that race's average speed.
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Like the classical editions, the new race was also designed as an
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international event, a fact complicated by the circumstances of war.
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In the past, the race enjoyed entries from Germany, Great
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Britain, and France, among others.
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In the spring of 1940, Germany was at war with both Britain and France, and
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Fascist Italy technically belonged to the Axis, albeit in a non combatant role.
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Therefore, it was a difficult proposition to get those
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countries to send participants.
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Moreover, the German entries put intense pressure on the organizers to ban
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British and French cars from the race.
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Determined to maintain the race's international status, the Brescian
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Automobile Club withstood the pressure and accepted two French DeLage entries.
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Although no British entries materialized, the esteemed motorsport writer W.
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O.
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Bradley, a fan of the race from its beginnings, showed up, only to
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face harassment from the Germans who were staying in the same hotel.
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So how did the 1940 edition of the Mille Miglia become part of the
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official canon of the classic race, despite its anomalous character?
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As I've argued in my book on fascism and motorsport, the Mille
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Miglia was a fascist artifact.
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Indeed, fascism was imprinted into the DNA of the race.
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From its origins, fascism indulged in a cult of speed and danger.
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A fetish for fast cars was common to both cultural strands that fed
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into Mussolini's movement, futurism and Gabriele Danunzio's decadentism.
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The strong cult of speed was reflected in the regime's enthusiastic support
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for motor racing, a fact appreciated by foreign observers like Bradley,
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who praised Mussolini for making races like the Mille Miglia a reality.
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He also praised the regime for disciplining Italians, right?
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Imagine that coming from a British writer in a British magazine.
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The Mille Miglia served fascism in several ways.
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First, it was a showcase for Italian industry.
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Second, it provided the regime an opportunity to brag about the
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discipline of the Italian people and to highlight its public works projects.
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Third, it became a vehicle to propagandize the regime's initiatives.
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such as autarky or national economic self sufficiency.
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Fourth, it transformed half of Italy into a giant autodrome where the
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world's fastest sports cars could shatter speed records and indulge in
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the cult of speed on ordinary roads.
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Finally, the regime could claim that it was returning motorsport back to
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its heroic, pioneering days of the open road, city to city races, when Italian
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cars were often major protagonists.
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And it could do all this without the massacres of those previous
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races, until 1938, of course.
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The task of the Royal Automobile Club of Brescia was to somehow reinvent
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the race in a new form while remaining faithful to these characteristics.
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In the new race, they believed to have found the answer.
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The case for this was made by several leading motorsport journalists in the
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pages of the official race program.
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Once again, the race was promoted as a return to origins.
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Only this time, the origins were the first motor races held in
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Italy, in and around Brescia.
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In fact, the new layout was a copy of the 1904 and 1905.
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Coppa Florio races.
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While the landmarks of the great Italian cities no longer figured on
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the route, the course traversed a landscape rich in memories of the
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Risorgimento Wars of the 19th century, a fact emphasized in the race program.
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With Italy only a few weeks away from entering the war, which, of course, no
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one knew publicly, the race thus hoped to stoke patriotic feelings through memories
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of Garibaldi and King Victor Emmanuel II.
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The revived Mille Miglia was planned to showcase Italian automotive
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engineering at a time when German cars dominated the Grand Prix circuits.
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Of the 12 editions of the Mille Miglia held previously, Italian cars had won
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all but one of them, the exception being in 1931, when Rudy Caracciola
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drove a Mercedes SSK to victory.
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This was a race that Italian machinery won on a consistent basis, and with war
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looming, It was important to demonstrate Italian technology, a fact raised
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by several writers in the program.
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Moreover, Alfa Romeo, which had won 10 editions of the race, had made
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an official return to racing in 1938 with Alfa Corse, and were eager to
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return to the pinnacle of the sport.
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Besides Alfa Corse, the entry for 1940 was stacked with Lancias and Fiats.
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In the lower national sport categories, the race also included
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two exciting new entries from ex Alfa Corse director Enzo Ferrari.
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One of these cars, officially called the 815, would be driven by Alberto
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Ascari, son of the legendary Antonio.
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A greater challenge came with highlighting public works projects.
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The one consistent site was the Piazza Vittoria in Brescia, which
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continued to serve as the race's paddock and scrutineering zone.
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Inaugurated in 1932 by Mussolini, The piazza was a large public square
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surrounded by monumental fascist style buildings designed by the regime's
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main architect, Marcello Piacentini.
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It included Italy's first skyscraper, the so called Torione, which
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featured prominently on Mille Miglia promotional materials.
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The headquarters of the Automobile Club were located in one corner
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of the piazza and from its balconies were draped the flags.
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of the competing nations.
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Prominently displayed near the swastika and the Italian flag was the flag of
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France, a fact insisted upon by race director Renzo Castagnetto after facing
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pressure from the Germans to remove it.
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In the absence of significant landmarks and fascist sites, the
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race program made much of the new link roads designed to circumnavigate
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the major cities of Cremona.
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In the case of the former, the race program exalted the speed and decisiveness
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shown by the city government in getting a new road built north of the city.
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According to the article, the idea for the road came from Roberto Farinacci.
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The notorious Rass of Cremona, a firebrand fascist, was one of
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Italy's most vociferous supporters of the alliance with Nazi Germany.
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Embodying the ideal of the zealous, speed obsessed fascist, Farinacci had
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competed in a few editions of the Mille Miglia, and also been the patron of the
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Cremona Grand Prix back in the 1920s, which I think at the time was the fastest
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closed public road circuit in that era.
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The completion of the new road took only 135 days from its announcement in November
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39 to its inauguration in April 1940.
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Not surprisingly, it was designed as a fast and long, gently banked curve.
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To make up for the paucity of monuments, the organizers decided to add their own.
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On the start finish line, just outside of Brescia, three large grandstands, were
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erected as well as a high control tower echoing the tower in the Piazza Vittoria.
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Across the tracks stood Castagnetto's Pride and Joy, a
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massive scoreboard designed by the local architect Tito Bruzza.
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The whole complex, which could be seen from afar, cost the organizers some 4
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million lira, with the cost being shared by the club, the local fascist party, and
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the municipal and regional governments.
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Included in this cost was a parking lot for 5, 000 vehicles,
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a restaurant, and a fairground.
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Next to the swastika flags in the Piazza Vittoria, these constructions
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appeared in most of the widely circulated photographs of the event.
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The war circumstances provided some propaganda value for the regime.
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Some of the authors in the program noted how an international sporting event
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like this could be a herald of peace.
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Or, it could demonstrate Italy's preparedness for a possible
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future entry into the conflict.
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Corrado Filippini, one of Italy's top motorsport journalists, reminded
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readers that this event could once again exalt the warrior nation, that
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the Mille Miglia first demonstrated in 1936 during the Ethiopian War.
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The program's lead editorial promised that this new Mille Miglia will be, quote,
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a great battle that will present to the world fascism's affirmation of power
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and organizing perfection, end quote.
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Furthermore, it was urgent for Italy in this difficult time to promote its
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industrial and technological efforts.
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And that's use a quote.
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All of these reasons suggested that the reimagined Mille Miglia could suit the
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race's traditional role as a promoter of fascist Italy and its values.
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But did it really capture the essence of the classic race?
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For the race to achieve its sporting and political objectives, it needed
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to express what the Mille Miglia had ultimately boiled down to.
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Speed, endurance, and distance.
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According to Aldo Farinelli, motorsport columnist for La Stampa and former
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participant in the race, the new Mille Miglia proved to be an evolution
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and not a revolution on this score.
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The old figure of eight layout had served its purpose, but a point had been proven
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with the improvement of Italy's roads.
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And it was no longer necessary to send race cars out onto those roads.
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While the old course still appealed to nostalgics, the
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Mille Miglia was about speed.
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And the old course, despite its improvements, still provided
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too many obstacles for the ever increasing speed of the cars.
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In contrast, the new layout...
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Though still held on public roads, exalted speed through its triangular
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shape and fast corners, which avoided crowded urban centers.
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The long straights and newly paved sections of the course promised a dramatic
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increase in the race's average speed.
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The new course, argued Renato Tomassini, quote, preserve the fundamental
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prerogatives of the old race while removing its unnecessary dangers.
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Ultimately, the Mille Miglia represented an idea and a spirit that could not
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be left to die simply because the old course had become inadequate.
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For Aldo Farinelli, the spirit of the race was found in technological
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progress that could hopefully lead to a more peaceful future in
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spite of the current winds of war.
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While others admitted that some of the legendary aura of the classic race
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would be lost, This was a necessary sacrifice to keep the idea alive.
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Furthermore, the race would be an improvement for spectators, who
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could now watch the race in its entirety from the new grandstands.
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For those concerned that the new track was nothing more than a Grand Prix circuit,
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Farinelli countered that the length of the track was in no way comparable to
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the artificial character of an autodrome.
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In its essence, the Mille Miglia came down to speed, and less to
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competition between drivers and cars.
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In other words, it didn't really matter who won the race, driver
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or car wise, the only thing that mattered was that average speed.
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On this layout, the Mille Miglia could continue to strive towards that ideal
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of ever increasing speed records.
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The race was run on an overcast day on April 28th, 1940,
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in front of a large crowd.
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Eighty eight cars started the race grouped into five national sport classes.
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The winner was a streamlined BMW 328 driven by Walter Baumer and Huska von
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Hanstein, who led from start to finish and were never seriously challenged.
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The car was part of a BMW team that was, in the words of one writer,
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organized like a paramilitary machine.
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Despite being in the smaller 2000cc class, the Germans were able to beat the more
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powerful but heavier Alfa Romeo teams.
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The two 815s, entered by Enzo Ferrari, showed promise before they both retired.
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As for the one French DeLage entry, it had to be run by an Italian crew
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with Italian drivers, as the French crew had to remain in France, waiting
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imminent call up to the colors.
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The car barely lasted a lap before catching fire, perhaps a foretaste
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of what was going to happen just a few months later to France itself.
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Although the race did not provide much in the way of excitement, it did
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provide a massive jump as expected in the average speed and showcase
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several streamlined cars, heralding the aerodynamic age in racing car design.
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Although the race was successful in attracting a crowd and an international
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field, it also proved to be the sporting equivalent of what the German armies
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were accomplishing on the battlefield.
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The large Nazi contingent that accompanied the BMW team were on full display, and
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the single most famous photograph is of the race winners waving to the crowd.
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Featured prominently on von Hanstein's, racing overall was the symbol of the SS.
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In this way it can be said that the new Mille Miglia had actually
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become the Axis Grand Prix, and thus did in fact maintain its character.
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as a fascist, but also Nazi, artifact.
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Thank you for all.
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Great.
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Here you go.
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So you have a number of allusions to the media placing the race in the context of
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fascism and the politics of the period.
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Did you encounter any evidence or stories of drivers, manufacturers,
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or national organizations also trying to make that contextual?
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understanding of fascism in the race, for it or against it, or other?
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Well, I think the photograph of the 815, I think, is a good example.
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And that wasn't the only car photographed on that spot.
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All the entries, the Italian cars, were photographed on that spot.
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I think that's definitely one.
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I know that the German BMW team did certainly take this event seriously.
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Again, they brought the whole kind of Nazi sporting apparatus with them.
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And, you know, the prominent flags with the swastikas and the Italian flag.
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I didn't see any pushback because again, I focused on the Italian media mostly,
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and even the one British journalist that was there, Bradley, was actually
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In favor of what fascism had done.
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You have to remember too, that at this point, fascist
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Italy was not yet in the war.
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And so some of the British and French could still admire to some
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extent Mussolini's regime without worrying about being treasonous.
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But that would end a few weeks later because on June
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10th, Italy came into the war.
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I did see an editorial by Charles Farou, who was the great Belgian motorsport
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writer for the French paper, L'Auto.
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He had a write up on it, and there was no political commentary
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or criticism at all from him.
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It was just a sporting event.
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You described an interest in internationalism that seemed to have
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internal contradictions and conflicts.
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Although you didn't explore wider coverage, I'm wondering to what extent
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this did have international importance.
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Was it, in fact, received elsewhere as a kind of...
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Expression of successful modernization and so on in Italy.
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Yes.
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I mean, all the Italian newspapers celebrated it.
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But again, you have to take that with caution because I mentioned
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the Farru article and he certainly was very pleased with the event.
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Charles Farru, if you're not familiar with him, was probably
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the deacon of continental.
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Motorsport writers, and he was a big fan of the media, so you might have expected
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maybe some criticism, but I didn't see it in this article, and so I think
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there was generally favorable reviews on it because it involved French entries
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for those who are still thinking that Mussolini might be able to negotiate.
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And, I mean, this is April 1940, so Germany had just invaded
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the Scandinavian countries.
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But you still had a kind of a phony war atmosphere.
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I think it was received, as some of these writers said, a possibility
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of a future peacetime event.
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But, of course, this would be the last motor race held in Italy.
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Were there any American entries, and how did they finish?
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No.
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In this race?
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No.
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No.
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I didn't see any American entries.
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No, there were just the Germans, the Italians.
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And the two French cars, one of the French cars only ended up
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racing and again, didn't last a lot, but I didn't see any Americans
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in Italy.
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I actually conduct the research at the Mille Miglia Museum in Brescia,
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which is a wonderful museum.
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It's not easy to get into their archive.
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You have to write ahead several months beforehand and they get the stuff for you.
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So you tell them what you want.
25:54
And they'll give it for you, but they gave me some beautiful reproductions.
25:56
So I did research there.
25:58
I also did research in the city archives of Brescia as well and the municipal
26:03
and the state archives in Rome.
26:05
So I found some material there, but a lot of my research also comes from the
26:08
Revs Museum in Naples, Florida, which is a good repository of documents.
26:13
Thank you.
26:14
Thanks very much.
26:19
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