Sunday, October 3, 1926: the second edition of the Spoleto-Forca di Cerro uphill car race, organised by the Automobile Club of Spoleto, ends with the victory of Luigi Rabitti from Spoleto.

Just two editions were what it took for the sporting event to become a motoring classic; the articles in the Messaggero of the time kept at the Carducci library report ‘a grandiose success […] due mainly to the skilful organisation’, presided over by Marquis Federico Pucci della Genga, assisted by the President of the Automobile Club of Spoleto, Liborio Marignoli di Montecorona.

Rabitti won the race over a distance of almost 9 km in 8 minutes and 35 seconds at an average speed of 64.16 km/h. The Spoleto driver’s time is the best among those competing in the racing car category (two-seater). First place in the touring car category went to Guido Mancinelli, who set the course record with a time of 8 minutes and 46 seconds (at an average speed of 62.257 km/h).

The technical and scenic beauty of the route – all bends and hairpin turns featuring daring trajectories open onto highly suggestive views – ensure that the race, together with the high number of entrants and the prestige of many of them, is counted for years among the most important events in the motor racing circuit in centra Italy.

The scenery, profiles and views of the extraordinary route between Spoleto and Norcia along the Valnerina, passing through Forca di Cerro, had already amazed the velocipedes and drivers of the first cars, as shown by a guidebook of the Italian Touring Club, published in July 1901 and kept at the library, which shows us in detail the altimetrical route.

The Spoleto-Forca di Cerro – a test for four-wheelers racing through the impervious Valnerina amenities – had already won over the public and the experts in the first edition of 20 September 1925. The winner then in the category of racing cars, was Mario Umberto Borzacchini from Terni, who in Spoleto took the first of many victories that would soon make him one of the key figures of Italian motorcycling in the 1920s and 1930s. Vice-champion of Europe and a close friend of Nuvolari, Borzacchini lost his life in a dramatic accident at the Monza circuit in the early 1930s.

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