The Last Green Valley Rallye started out on a cool and damp Saturday morning, which then turned into a perfect Spring day for this long-anticipated romp through the countryside of central Massachusetts, eastern Connecticut, and western Rhode Island. Eighteen cars were entered by AONE and JANE members — although not all of them were Alfas and Jaguars! In fact, there was a really diversified assortment of interesting vehicles that also included Lotus, Ferrari, Morgan, Triumph, Saab, and Miata.

Everyone gathered at Purgatory Chasm State Park in Sutton, MA, for sign-in and a drivers meeting, at which the TSD route directions and gimmick question sheets were handed out. Then the cars were sent out at timed intervals onto the carefully-planned route. Carefully-planned, that is, except at one intersection where all the cars made the same wrong turn! But everybody took identical penalties and pressed on. As rallyemaster Tom Letourneau put it, "After telling all of our participants that no one ever gets lost on my rallyes, I then proceeded to get everyone lost!"

Eventually, all of the participants arrived at the final checkpoint in Putnam, Connecticut, by which time the weather had cleared, the sun was warm, and everyone assembled at an outdoor sidewalk cafe for a late lunch and the awards presentations, and to swap stories about the rallye.

Many thanks to Tom Letourneau for putting together a route through some lovely scenery along beautiful country back roads. He even set up a checkpoint that included a quick tour of the old Thompson Speedway in Connecticut, where he was there to hand out info packets on the old course. Tom’s main assistant, checkpoint worker, and photographer was AONE’s John DeWaele. John was stationed at a scenic overlook early along the route to take photos of each car as its driver and navigator took a quick break (see this month’s cover). Adrian & Sue Curtis and Steve & Diana Thomas worked the other checkpoints, giving out encouragement as the teams arrived, since everyone was wondering if they were running "late". Steve was also the official rallye records keeper, totaling all the results on his laptop to come up with the final standings that determined the winners.

With both AONE and JANE members running the rallye, Tom awarded first-, second-, and third-place prizes for each group. In the Alfa Class, John DeWaele’s wife, Lauren, and youngest son, Sean, ran away with first place in the DeWaeles’ Morgan Plus4. They were followed by Kevin & Diane Murphy driving their Verde Inglese ‘74 Alfa Spider. Taking third place were Gene & Judy Durso in their red Lotus Elise. Other AONE rallyists included Rod Burdick (red ‘65 Sprint Speciale), Dan & Deb Donovan (burgundy ‘88 Spider), Michael & Peter Donnelly (red ‘74 GTV), Gino Evangelista & Steve Solano (red ‘77 308GTB), and ... TA-DA!!! ... the winner of the coveted Broken Spoke award, Mark Ziburis (red ‘92 Spider). To be fair, Mark ran the rallye without a navigator — a significant handicap.

It was a long time in the making, but the Last Green Valley Rallye was well worth waiting for! Great roads, a little friendly competition, a wide diversity of sports cars, some interesting and thoughtful prizes, and a well-planned and -executed event made for an outing that won’t soon be forgotten!

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