Even with the rain on Saturday, everybody who stuck it out had a blast once again at the AROC-CT track weekend at Lime Rock on April 25-26! The Connecticut chapter continues to put on a great event. This year was undersubscribed, and the run groups were a bit goofy, but everybody got an extra track session on Friday, and there was even more track time to be had on Saturday for those who braved the rain. Among the Alfas, it was mostly GTV6s with only two GTVs, a smattering of Giulietta, Giulia, and 105 Spiders, and, of course, one Sport Sedan. 

Friday was a spectacular day, perfect weather, and very few incidents. Tom Freiberger suffered a lousy stroke of luck with his supercharged GT and blew a head gasket on lap #2, and a Corvette threw a rod or something, but other than that people pretty much kept it on the pavement and didn’t break anything.

Jonathan didn’t show, so Guiseppe Lore in his hot 3.0 GTV6 was the fastest Alfa, and AONE’s own Nick Fonte continues to amaze everybody in his Alfetta Sport Sedan. That car has no right to be going so fast! Despite a lot of traffic from the slower Ferraris (especially one very slow Testarossa), Nick managed to delaminate his left front Hoosier and had to tap into Brian’s stock of three-year-old R1s. As it turned out, Nick claimed that his car was transformed and was really able to crank that sedan around. Similarly, Bob managed to chunk one of his new Kuhmos and had to switch to some used ones, which turned out to be faster as well.

On Saturday, they were predicting huge volumes of rain, 1"-2", and calls from surrounding towns seemed to indicate that people in those locations were in fact getting deluged, but at the track it held to just a drizzle until mid-afternoon. The drivers were able to learn the ‘wet line’ around the track, and, with the minimal amount of rain falling, there was actually pretty good traction to be had. By afternoon, there were probably less than 20 cars left. Brian, Nick, and Bob got a chance to go out together and play. After several laps of intense pressure by Bob, Nick went for a brief excursion down the escape road, allowing Bob to get in front of him. A couple of laps later, Nick was right on Bob’s tail. From Big Bend through No-Name, Bob was able to distance himself, but from there back, Nick was able to reel him back in. They played that game for a few laps until Bob glanced in his mirror exiting the left hander and saw Nick’s sedan spinning. Shortly after, the session ended.

Between sessions on Saturday, Brian’s trailer made for a great shelter. We sold more AONE umbrellas in one day than we ever had before! No one did any body damage that we know of. Speaking of which, Gene Durso showed up in his new yellow ’74 Spider (just to watch and take photos) that he got to replace the one he dented at last year’s event. Gene’s just going to enjoy his car on the street this year but promises to be back on the track next season.

It was most pleasant to see the reappearance of a certain famous yellow ’62 Spider racer—the one formerly piloted by Jim Hayes. Mike Lawton is the new owner, but he’s not new to racing. He plans to campaign it 8-10 times a year on the vintage circuit. It’s nice to see the car remaining in New England! Bill LeClair was there turning respectable times in his ’91 164L, proving once again that all Alfas are born race cars. And temporarily Alfaless AONE member John Legelis had some fun on (and occasionally off) the track with his Boxster. Other cars of interest at the event were a delightful Fulvia HF, Mike Valant’s old Super, and a very cool Lancia Integrale.