You’re all undoubtedly desperate to find out the answers to last month’s Mystery Photo Contest, so we’ll start off with a discussion of our questions, your answers, and how they were judged:

Make
Well, this is an Alfa Romeo club…

Model
Despite its condition, all of the entrants still recognized the hulk as a GTV6. Two entrants received extra credit for identifying it as a Balocco. Not only that, this was Balocco #2 – the second Balocco ever produced!

Owner
And most entrants, one way or another, had either heard that Paul Glynn had had an incident with his ice racer or figured it out from the spiked tires. However, one entrant suggested that the owner was probably now the Aetna Insurance Company, and another adroitly pointed out that "no one really owns an Alfa".

Activity at time of incident
The correct answer, of course, was:
  · Ice Racing
Others suggested:
  · Sleeping
  · Auto Curling

Road conditions
Three entrants came up with the precise answer here, which was:
  · Road? What road?

Number of revolutions
Tricky question. Some contestants lost points for thinking it was about the New England professional soccer team. Correct answers were either:
  · 7500 RPM
  · 3 (the number of times that he rolled)
  · Both

Number of missing parts
Among the correct answers submitted:
  · Lots
  · They’re all there somewhere. Divers will find some, years from now.
  · Who cares? Now the car is lighter and will go faster.

Number of broken ribs
The answer to this is still a little unclear, since medical evaluation hasn’t been undertaken, but the best estimate is around two cracked or broken.

Suggested disposition of car
A sampling of suggestions:
  · Fix it up and race again.
  · Steam cleaner inside and a good wax outside should make it good as new.
  · Get it ready for next weekend.
  · Snow plow for a railroad. Wedge pattern will surely clear an adequate path.
  · Enter it in the demolition derby at Seekonk Speedway.
  · Call Car Talk and discuss options, then repaint it and run SCCA events as Team Enron.
  · Ebay, starting bid $600.

Probable disposition of owner
A few of the conjectures:
  · P****d, but with plans for an even faster replacement.
  · Build another car and hit the snow/ice again...I mean race on the snow/ice again.
  · His usual unflappable good humor
  · Furioso!
And the most accurate answer:
  · Next racer: a Milano!

Additional comments
Extra credit was given or taken for:
  · Insurance agent question: "Now sir, you were in the grocery store and this is how you found your car when you came out, correct?" "Ummm, yeah, that’s right, yeah, that’s what happened. When does the check get mailed?"
  · A clear candidate for the Velocissima want ads
  · We assume that he finished the race, possibly placing highly. Nuvolari would have, can less be expected now?

And the winner of a pair of Official AONE coffee mugs is Joe Cantrell, all the way from Portland, OR, who, through some combination of answers that were either correct or tickled the fancy of our esteemed blind judging staff (a.k.a. the AONE Directors), placed on top when the tally was taken. Many of his astute answers are among those printed above. Congratulations, Joe! (Hey, Joe—you live in Portland—are you sure you want the mugs and not the umbrella?)

Paul called up the Editor one day in mid-February to glumly report that, if any AONE members were planning a trip to Maine to watch him ice race an Alfa as suggested in the February issue, well, it was a little too late. Seems that on February 10th (the day after the AONE Winter Party, and also Paul’s birthday) he was up in Maine racing (the reason he wasn’t at the Winter Party), caught the side of the track, and rolled his GTV6 three times, spewing pieces of same over a wide area of frozen river. Happy Birthday, Paul.

Mr. Glynn is OK, but disgruntled that his season is over. It’s a shame too, because he was 2nd in class the first weekend of racing, 1st in class the second weekend, and 1st overall for total laps entering the third weekend. He chalks this up to the Alfa’s reliability, while the other cars were suffering from wet ignition misfires, blown head gaskets and engines, broken transmissions, and broken suspensions (from sliding through holes in the ice broadside).

But wait! This news just in! Despite the unceremonious curtailment of Paul’s racing season, he’s been awarded Class Champion for the year! Turns out that the warm winter made the season a short one, and February 10th was the last official race day. The trophy is on the way! Add that to the ten first- and second-place trophies (pictured here on the roof) in three years of racing the GTV6 and, when we go to read its eulogy, we’ll have to say that it led a proud life.

Go get ‘em, Paul!  

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