Round 1, Italy

European Rally Championship

The Rally 1000 Miglia takes its name from the worldwide known “Mille Miglia”, the famous race which was run from 1927 to 1957 from Brescia to Rome and back and which now is run as a Regularity event.

Organized by the Automobile Club of Brescia, the rally was run for the first time in 1977. Since 1993 it has FIA validity and since 2001 it is valid for the FIA European Rally Championship. After three years in Montichiari and last year in Desenzano, in 2010 the heart of the event goes back to Brescia, like it has always been in the past: both the Ceremonial Start and the final Arrival (together with the Prize-giving Ceremony) will take place in the historic centre of the town. The Rally HQ and the Media Centre will be hosted in the Club's building while the Service Park (over 20 000 m2, same for both legs) will be located nearby in a brand new location just opposite the highway toll exit.

Since 1985 the rally is one of the top events of the Italian Rally Championship and attracts every year the most qualified drivers (in the last three years the number of entrants was around or over one hundred); list of past winners includes Dario Cerrato, Fabrizio Tabaton, Gianfranco Cunico, Piero Longhi, Andrea Dallavilla, Renato Travaglia, Miguel Campos, Giandomenico Basso and Paolo Andreucci.

Year after year, Rally 1000 Miglia had moved forward to the top of motorsport events in Italy and in 2010 - being the fact that there will be no WRC event in Italy - it will be the most important rally event in the country. On the basis of very good FIA Observers' reports, the FIA Rally Commission has confirmed again Rally 1000 Miglia among the top 11 events of the European Rally Championship. The rally is also one of the TWO races of the prestigious Trident Trophy, together with another main event of the Championship, Rallye Antibes in France.

The rally is run through one of the most picturesque parts of northern Italy and all the Special Stages are on good tarmac roads: it consists of two days with six different SS (all of them to be run twice) plus one TV Stage (about 2 km long) which will be broadcasted live on Saturday afternoon by RAI, the most important TV Channel in Italy. The total distance of the rally is about 900 km, the thirteen Special Stages total distance is about 255 kilometers. All the Stages (the shortest is about 11 km long, the longest is over 30 km long) are almost the same of the past years.

In 2009 the event has been followed by more than 80 000 enthusiastic spectators (5 000 of them only at the Super Special Stage run at South Garda Kartdrome near Desenzano del Garda). Accredited Media (newspapers, magazines, web-sites, radio and TV) in 2009 were over 130.