The Fifth Annual Pasta Fazoom Rally almost wasn’t this year due to two factors. The week before, our beloved lakeside lunch stop inn canceled out due to health problems of the owner. This left the organizer scrambling to find another place as good, yet still within the rally area. An inn that had closed for the season was found at another lake. Checking with area residents, the owner was located downstate, and he cordially agreed to open the place up for our rally participants. He and his wife thought it sounded neat to have a bunch of Italian cars gracing his parking lot and establishment. The folks at the Boatside Inn went out of their way to accommodate us on such short notice and served up some delicious food that included Speidies, a southern tier specialty you’ve got to try. Now that the lunch stop was located, we were able to do some last-minute routing, which increased the route approximately another twelve miles, adding even more twisties—just gotta love those back roads of central New York!

The weather that moved in Saturday night was almost the coup de grace—RAIN!!! First, this eliminated our traditional late Saturday night Targa Florio activities, namely painting the roads with the appropriate (or inappropriate, in the minds of the culturally challenged) Italian graffiti requisite of a true Targa. Worse yet was that the rain, which had stalled, continued to be upon us Sunday morning. With less than an hour to go before scheduled departure, only five cars had arrived. These included a Ferrari 308, whose owner said that he would not be deterred unless it was a typhoon—now there’s a man with the correct perspective on using his car. Gradually, a slight clearing with blue sky was noticed, and more cars arrived. Eventually, we had 15 out of the pre-registered 25. The rally was a go!

The roads were a little damp at first, but as we continued onward they dried out, and by the rally’s end point we were in tee shirts, basking in sun and blue skies. I think this was just a test by the Italian gods to see if we were truly worthy. Hopefully we passed, and they will only deliver sun in the future. As usual, everyone had a great time on the route; we even had about ten miles of recent repaving, which made the primo esses as smooth as glass. The only thing left to do is to have the authorities officially close the roads that day for the rally in the future.

At the finish, it was time for cider, some great pass-around food, and the prize drawings.  I wish to thank Vick Autosports for their continued support of Pasta Fazoom with their prize donations. It was well in excess of $300-worth of goodies, which included a set of embroidered Alfa Spider floor mats! Please consider these guys when purchasing parts; they can be reached at 800-466-3428 or www.vickauto.com. I also want to thank the other new supporters: Meguiars, Keith Martin’s Sports Car Market magazine (which sent along issues highlighting assorted Alfas), and Grassroots Motorsports’ new publication Classic Motorsports. Everyone was a recipient of our sponsors’ support, and post-drawing bartering was heady. Lastly, the recipient of this year’s "Founder’s Choice Trophy" (a.k.a. the Sacred Piston) was Mike Giambatista and his Maserati Indy.

This year’s registration included the debut of the Pasta Fazoom lapel pins. The design and car highlighted will change each year, making them instant collectibles and enticing people to keep on coming back. Next year’s pin will feature something close to the AONE reader’s heart; that’s all I’ll say for now. Also available (albeit on short supply, as this was a test) were embroidered Pasta Fazoom hats and tee shirts, which sold out almost immediately. Pays to be early for registration! There will be more next year.

Finally, a few other highlights this year included: the arrival of Dick and Nina’s Volks Romeo or is it Alfa Wagen; Jeff’s Tubi exhaust-equipped 308 (that people just followed behind for the aural experience and to see the occasional backfire flame, which was described as sufficient in size to cook hot dogs in); and the appearance at the finish of a spectator with his early (’61?) Guilietta Sprint that was in immaculate condition.

So mark your calendar for the Sixth Annual Pasta Fazoom Rally—the last weekend in September 2004! Come west, AONE members—you’ll have a great time! Don’t forget that there’s a Saturday night dinner too! Drive a little, get a lot! And still be home by early evening Sunday.....