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Alfa Romeo were handed a highly prestigious win at Interlagos last weekend when Uberto Molo, Claudio Capparelli and Istvan Minach, driving the Tekprom Alfa Romeo 156 won the MMSTC 'SuperTouring' class of the Mil Milhas Brasil, South America's most important and prestigious long-distance race. Starting from category pole position, after ten and a half hours of hard racing the crew won the race five laps clear of the second placed GM Omega shared by Fernanda and Fernando Parra. Another hotly-tipped contender in the class, the Eurobike Motorsport-entered BMW M3 of Fábio Souto Mayor, Henry Visconde, Luiz Coutinho and Ronaldo Sampaio dropped out of the race at one third distance.

The Alfa Romeo 156 has had a highly successful touring car racing career, winning the FIA European Touring Car Championship outright in the hands of Fabrizio Giovanardi (2001 and 2002) and Gabriele Tarquini (2003). The Alfa 156 has just been replaced in the showrooms by the new Alfa 159 and so the former 'European Car of the Year' is now seeing its illustrious racing career now winding to a close. However the raw speed, endurance and competitiveness of the Alfa 156 was demonstrated yet again in this tough, 1,000 mile historic race. Alfa Romeo themselves have a long association with the Mil Milhas Brasil, in fact on 22nd November 1970, Abílio and Alcides Diniz won the race overall at the wheel of the Alfa Romeo GTA 2000.

The 50th anniversary race took place on the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo, and it was one of the special events that are being organised as part of the official celebrations of the Foundation of São Paulo City, which happened 452 years ago the next 25th January. The first Mil Milhas was held 50 years ago when a journalist named Wilson Fittipaldi (the father of F1 World Champion Emerson) invited several pilots to take part in a new race. The introductory dialogue said "Bom dia, meu nome é Wilson Fittipaldi, esta é a minha esposa Juzy. Sou jornalista, vim de São Paulo para convidá-lo a disputar uma nova corrida que estou organizando, as Mil Milhas, em Interlagos." This translated as "Good morning , my name is Wilson Fittipaldi , and this is my wife Juzy. I am a jornalist , and I came from São Paulo to invite you for a participation in a new race that I am organizing , the Mil (1000) Milhas , in Interlagos." According to history, this dialogue took place at the beginning of 1956 between Wilson and Breno Fornari, who went on to win the first edition. Wilson (today 84 years old) and Jucy (83) actually travelled from São Paulo to Porto Alegre in a DKW Van to invite the experienced and well organised pilots of the Rio Grande do Sul state-region to take part. The first edition was deemed a great success. It was closely based in the big ideas of Wilson, who when he saw the Mille Miglia in Italy in 1949, decided to he had to transfer that race's concept to Brazil. Wilson was helped by Eloi Gogliano to organize the event which attracted 44 pilots, 38 from the southern region.

The 50th running of the Mil Milhas Brasil got underway on Saturday 21st January at 12:00, led by the pole-sitting ZF01 prototype of Bonifacio, Giaffone and Meira. The GLPK Carsport Corvette C5-R was second, followed by the Capuava Mercedes DTM car of Kanaan, Lamy, Losacco and Boesel. The first of the two GPC Giesse Sports Ferrari 575 GTCs shared by the Marques family and regular FIA GT series pilot Philipp Peter, was fourth, with the Cirtek Aston Martin DB9R of Bouchut, Piquet, Piquet and Castroneves fourth.

Thiago Marques, Tarso Marques and Paulo de Tarso made it to the finish line at Interlagos in 10th place in the surviving GPC Giesse Sport Ferrari 575 GTC Evo 2005, its sister car having dropped out of the race early on.