The Vintage Car Extravaganza at Thompson Speedway

Alfa Romeo Spiders duke it out with other competitors in the vintage modified class on the oval track at Thompson

By Gene Durso, John DeWaele, and Kevin Murphy
Photos by John DeWaele

I thought I’d share my experience at the Thompson Vintage Extravaganza with the members of AONE, since there was only a small club presence there. As with other vintage road race celebrations, it was wonderful to roam around the pits and talk to the owners of these old race cars. As always, it was a pleasure to see these old cars being driven at speed.

Our AONE turnout was small — only four members were in attendance and only two Alfas (I’m sure Tom Letourneau and John DeWaele were sorry they didn’t bring out their Alfas). Jon Hoenig, whose family owns and operates Thompson Speedway, was true to his word and gave us a few laps on the oval. A great opportunity was had for me and Kevin Murphy! We had to wait for a number of runs before us, but at about noontime we received the call for our Alfas to come to the track entrance.

Kevin and I arrived, and I was surprised to see no pace car. A worker came by and asked me how many laps we’d like, and then let me enter the oval with Kevin in tow. I was glad my Alfa was wearing our AONE 100 year anniversary banner, since without realizing it I was going to be my own pace car!

We started with a few laps under yellow, as I had to slow down to let the last few modified cars off the track. Then I was given the green flag. I opened it up a bit and was having myself some fun (with a safety margin, of course). I know it’s not a road race course, but it was nevertheless a lot of fun to experience a banked oval. Kevin and I both had the same thought: “Where are the Apexes?”.

Thank you, Jon Hoenig! Sorry about the low turnout, but I sure hope you are successful with bringing all of us sports car fans back to Thompson for some road racing in the future. And I sure hope we can draw more of a crowd from AONE to next year’s vintage event!

 — Gene Durso

I really missed the boat on this event! Tom and I were originally thinking of going to the Saab convention in NJ, but after some thought decided to go to Thompson instead. Completely missing the boat that this was a club event of sorts, I didn’t even think of bringing the Alfa. I spent the afternoon the previous Sunday cleaning it from top to bottom and didn’t want to leave it in a dusty lot while we watched the race cars. Little did I know that I might have gotten in a few "parade laps"!

Arriving at the track, I saw Gene, and then Kevin pulled in soon after. My first thought was, “What the hell are they doing here?” Oh, well.

I enjoyed the event immensely! All of those wonderful old cars at that wonderful old track. I really got a kick out of some of the "back yard specials". It was such a diverse group of cars (and people) that I was almost expecting to see an Alfa engine in one of the cars. Many of these folks are true racing pioneers; I just wish I had seen them run in their heyday!

All in all, it was a great "car" event. Any true motorhead would definitely get a charge out of these machines and their pilots! I'll be there next year!

 — John DeWaele

Sometimes new events just take time to build momentum.  Once the AONE membership sees what a good time we had and how well we were treated, more of them will show up next year!

 — Kevin Murphy

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