Bentley celebrates best result at 2014 Mille Miglia.

• Bentley Blower secures highest position to date
• Continental GT3 racer Jerome D’Ambrosio excels on debut 
• Unique Bentley celebration held in Brescia

This year’s Mille Miglia challenge, which involved hundreds of classic cars from across the world attempt to complete a gruelling 4-day and 1700km drive through Italy, saw Bentley Motors secure its best position to date with one of the company’s iconic 4 ½ Litre supercharged Bentley Blowers.

Rolf Frech, Bentley’s Member of the Board for Engineering and Jerome D’Ambrosio, finished in 73^rd position out of the 438 cars that took part; the best result achieved by Bentley to date and also one of the highest British finishers.

Rolf Frech comments: “Once again Mille Miglia proved to be a real test of every driver’s stamina and ability. The Bentley Blower, which is now in its ninth decade, demonstrated that it is a remarkable piece of engineering and more than capable of meeting the challenge.” 

Bentley works racing driver Jerome D’Ambrosio, making his Mille Miglia debut, proved to be a great addition to the team. Using his considerable skills (usually employed behind the wheel of his Bentley Continental GT3 in the Blancpain Endurance Series) Jerome ensured the Blower was always competitive. Jerome explains:

“It was great to get behind the wheel of such a famous Bentley and understand the immense skills the original Bentley Boy racing drivers had. The car requires a lot of raw strength to drive but has such immense character that even after four days of hard driving it was a shame to reach the finishing line. Following in the footsteps of the first Bentley racing drivers was a great honour and I now feel like a true Bentley Boy.”

A unique meeting of Bentleys before the start of this year’s event ensured the Mille Miglia began in fine style for the Bentley team.

Customers and friends from the Bentley Drivers Club (www.bdcl.co.uk) joined the drivers in the city centre of Brescia. Fittingly, the location for the meeting of Bentleys was the Piazza Bruno Boni which is named in honour of one of the founders of the original Mille Miglia race.