This book presents the first 50 years of the history of the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”.
This historic track – the “Autodromo del mare” or seaside circuit – has witnessed unforgettable chapters in the history of motorsport, on two wheels and four, from the very first season in 1972 when the facility was inaugurated, through to the present day. The texts and the extraordinary photographs accompany readers along a thrilling exploration of the history of a circuit that has hosted the world’s greatest riders and drivers from every decade.
In a chronological narration that sets out from Emilia-Romagna’s Motor Valley of the early 20th century, the book describes the principal races held at the Misano circuit, from the pioneering 1970s with the unforgettable duels on two wheels involving the likes of Giacomo Agostini and Renzo Pasolini to those on four wheels featuring Italian and international drivers. Then came the 1980s, with the motorcycling World Championship arriving on the Riviera together with F.2 and F.3 single-seaters and sports prototype and GT cars. The 1990s instead heralded the Superbike championship and the Super Turismo touring cars. The new millennium has seen the circuit develop into an avant-garde facility on all fronts, capable of hosting international events and prestigious collateral events.
The volume is edited by Marco Montemaggi, coordinator and author of numerous books on Italian industrial culture and, in the motor industry, former director of the Ducati Museum and former scientific curator of the Motor Valley project. A scientific committee made up of highly experienced authors and personalities such as Andrea Albani, Davide Bagnaresi, Marco Masetti, Luigi Rivola and Sergio Remondino contributed with passion to the creation of the volume, assisted by many of the protagonists of Italian motorsport, always close to the Misano World Circuit.
Ninety years ago the first Mille Miglia was held on March 26-27, 1927. The First Mille Miglia enables the reader to pin down a story which is not exactly secret, but has remained unknown until now. After exhaustive research of the Mille Miglia Archives, previously unpublished yet invaluable documentation came to light with the historic information they provide. This book tells of the first Mille Miglia’s regulations, the analytical description of 1,618 kilometres of the route – a rare description of the Italian roads in 1927 – specifications of the 101 cars entered for the event with photographs of the drivers, the results list and times at which each entrant reached the various controls at Parma, Bologna, Florence, Poggibonsi, San Quirico d’Orcia, Viterbo, Rome, Terni, Spoleto, Ancona, Rimini, Bologna and Treviso. From this journey into the recorded history of the first Mille Miglia, out came the story of just what the event really was like: a giant utopian undertaking, from which the book now attempts to separate legend from reality. By studying documents, most of which were previously unknown, a different story emerges of the 1927 Mille Miglia’s various stages, what the drivers looked like and all presented as real people. And much of the illustrative material is previously unpublished.
This book focuses exclusively on the development of the Tipo 33 and the motorsport activities of the car during 1967.
It was a long held belief that there was only scarce documentation available concerning Autodelta, the motorsport company. With the help of Dr. Marco Fazio we were able to unearth various diverse records from the Alfa Romeo archives which contained detailed reports of the race activities of Autodelta. With such records to hand we were able to build an complete picture, free of any doubt, of the cars that participated in races during 1967 in the works team.
In addition to the racing participation of the Tipo 33 we have also covered aspects of the Tipo 33 Stradale and the related Alfa Romeo OSI Scarabeo.
Work on a second book covering the 1968 racing season is currently under way and is planned for release in 2019.
312 pages, 224 black and white photographs and 114 colour photographs
