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The AONE Calendar August 28—ARO-CT Track Day—Saturday only at Lime Rock Park September 3-6—Rolex Vintage Festival and Italian Car Corral —Lime Rock Park September 12—Gardner’s Italian Car Owners’ Picnic—Ashby, Massachusetts September 26—Pasta Fazoom Italian Car Cruise—Central New York |
Forza
Italiana!
Track Day at Lime Rock Park
Saturday, August 28
The Alfa Romeo Owners Club - Connecticut chapter is this year sponsoring one day of driver’s school and open practice at Lime Rock Park. The focus will be classroom and track instruction for the less-experienced drivers and practice sessions on the track for the more-experienced veterans. Registrations will be limited to 75 drivers.
All
cars must come to the track pre-tech inspected. The first group will be on the
track at 9:00 sharp, the earliest that local ordinances allow. ARO-CT has the
reputation of running the smoothest and safest track event around, and this year
will be no different. There will be paid corner workers to reduce down time
between run groups.
Safety requirements include a Snell-95 or newer helmet. Also, safety equipment (seat belts, roll-bar coverage) must be identical for driver and front passenger. Those of you with open cars will need to have an SCCA-legal roll bar that extends two inches above both driver’s and passenger’s helmets—insurance rules no longer allow cars with street roll bars onto the track.
The cost to participate is $230. Contact ARO-CT’s Mario Romagnoli for more information on this wonderful event (or if you’d like to volunteer to help). He can be reached at (914) 693-7426 evenings, email at MFRMD@aol.com, or fax anytime at (914) 693-1636. Click here to download detailed information and the application form.
So bring your car and run, or just show up to watch—it’s great fun. There’s a concession stand on the grounds, you can park right in the paddocks, and there are plenty of uncrowded locations from which to watch the action. This is a private event, so bring your AROC membership card or you may not get in, even just to spectate!
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Italian Car Corral at the Lime Rock Park Vintage Festival
Festival September 3-6; Corral Monday, September 6
On
Labor Day, Fiat Lancia Unlimited (FLU) will sponsor its 11th annual Italian Car
Corral at Lime Rock Race Track in Lakeville, CT. Alfa Owners of New
England is co-sponsor of this event. The Corral is being held in conjunction
with the Vintage Sports Car Races being held over Labor Day weekend at the
track. The schedule includes practice races on Friday, qualifying races on
Saturday, a Concours on Sunday and Vintage Races on Labor Day. In addition,
there ares an auto flea market, vendors, a concours on Sunday, and many
beautiful and rare cars to inspect. This is New England’s premier vintage racing
event, with thousands of people flocking to Lime Rock!
All Italian marques are welcome to participate in the Corral. In order to "earn" a corral space reservation with the track, FLU must pre-sell 25 discounted tickets to the Vintage Festival. There is no additional charge for the Corral; however, participants must purchase a ticket to the Vintage Festival and races.
While the Italian Car Corral is held on Monday, FLU is offering weekend and daily tickets to the Vintage Festival that are discounted below the "advanced ticket" prices offered online by the track. The ticket prices are as follows:
Your tickets will be held at the Will-Call Ticket Booth next to the infield entrance gate. Please send your ticket order indicating the number and type of tickets, payable to "Lime Rock Park", as soon as possible to Tim Beeble, Fiat Lancia Unlimited, 63 Grassy Plain Street, Bethel, CT 06801. Tim can also be contacted with any questions at 203-743-4954 or beeblet@umich.edu. For more information, check out the Lime Rock web site.
Gardner’s Italian Car Owners’ Picnic
Sunday, September 12
Myriad Italian car owners will be heading for Ashby, Massachusetts on September 12th, where the Gardner family will hold their annual Italian car owners’ picnic. The hosts of the gathering provide the hotdogs and hamburgers, and guests are asked to bring a dish to share, such as potato salad, etc. To get directions and details, and to RSVP your attendance and identify what dish you intend to bring, contact Tim Beeble at 203-743-4954 or beeblet@umich.edu.
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Pasta Fazoom – The Sixth Annual
Italian Car Cruise in Central New York
Sunday, September 26
First run in 1999, Pasta Fazoom is a low-key road event providing Italian car owners with an opportunity to gather for some camaraderie and an enjoyable cruise though the picturesque Central New York countryside. This is not a concours event—it is a drivers’ outing.
Pasta
Fazoom has been growing every year! Since different folks prefer different
driving styles, there will be two different "flights" taking off. One of the
flights will be Eleganza (relaxed touring) style, while the other will be Con
Brio (with spirit).
Despite living out there in the middle of New York State, Italian Car Consortium (ICC) founder Cal Crouch is also an enthusiastic AONE member. In its sixth year, the sortie will take place on Sunday, September 26th. There will also be a gathering of sorts on Saturday afternoon and evening, so why not plan to make an entire weekend of it? The Cruise itself shoves off at 11AM on Sunday and winds up around 3PM for cider and togetherness, so there’s plenty of time afterward to get home for a good night’s sleep before Monday rolls around.
Previous years’ participants report having a lot of fun—that it’s a great chance to tear up some terrific empty roads with other Italian car aficionados! There’s a lot more information, some great photos from prior years’ cruises, and an online registration form on the ICC web site, or you can reach Cal at 315-691-9718 or calvincrouch@hotmail.com.
So head out west, where the roads are twisty and empty, and enjoy some Pasta Fazoom!