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Text and photos by John DeWaele Beautiful Sonoma Valleyand the City of Rohnet Park played host to this year’s AROC National Convention. Located about 45 minutes north of San Francisco (or approximately 90 minutes via the scenic route), this area has no shortage of vineyards and just the right kind of roads to keep any Alfa (and its occupants) deliriously happy! This year’s convention was hosted by the Delta Sierra AROC Chapter and the Alfa Romeo Association. This new model of combined chapter hosting seems to be the way of the future, with last year’s Toronto convention and future conventions shaping up to go the same route. Being able to draw on the membership and financial resources of multiple chapters makes hosting today’s conventions more feasible. Several tours helped kick off Monday’s official start. A Board of Directors meeting, a rally school, and dinner (optional) at the Safari West Wildlife Park made this first day quite unique! The competition started Tuesday with tech inspection for the speed events and a TSD rally, as well as a high performance driving school conducted by Hooked on Driving. The afternoon also included a gimmick rally and wrapped up with a welcome reception. As an aside, our hosts also offered five self-guided tours. Lauren and I drove three of the tours during the week, discovering many more wonderful roads that took us by numerous vineyards and that breathtaking coast! Wednesday was track day at Sonoma Raceway. A total of 71 cars took to the track while 54 cars took part in the autocross laid out in the spacious parking lot. Additionally, 92 cars took part in the parade laps on the track. Certainly a great experience, motoring along on one of the country’s most demanding race tracks! Numerous GTV race cars added to the excitement as well as an Alfa Romeo Formula 1 car! Dinner Wednesday night was a Mexican Fiesta held at the beautiful Doubletree Hotel. A car wash was available to prep the cars for Thursday’s Concorso. Speaking of Concorso, a “Concorso Midnighto ForFunO” was held after the swap meet and dinner. Entrants were invited to light their Alfas after dark as uniquely as one might imagine. Check out the multi-colored Scuderia Limoni Milano that Brian Shorey (and family) entered, which garnered 3rd place. With the remotely triggered changing multi-colored lights, I was betting on a first place showing from the Shorey Team! Oh well, that’s racing(?)! At 7 am on Thursday, Lauren and I made our way next door to the golf course and volunteered to help line up the entrees for the Concorso. The team greeted us with coffee, pastry and tee shirts; nice touch! With 60 cars entered for judging and 125 unjudged, the lineup was impressive. During a brief return to the hotel, I counted 46 more cars in the hotel lot. Taking into consideration the cars at the track that did not make it to the hotel, there must have been at least 250 cars at this convention! The most impressive part of this statistic is how nice all these cars were and how well they were all prepared. Thursday afternoon provided us with several more tours including a very special tour to view the Keller Collection. I was not one of the lucky ones to view this fine collection but I heard it was jaw-dropping! Tech sessions capped off the afternoon and the Gala Banquet concluded the day, with guest speaker Denise McCluggage entertaining the audience. An awards brunch rounded out the week Friday morning as well as a Town Hall meeting with the Board of Directors. If that wasn’t enough, there were two post-convention tours Friday afternoon! Steve Davis and his team pulled off a wonderful convention! I cannot think of one aspect of the week that could have been improved! They were always at the ready to answer questions and point us all in the right direction for all of the events. And the accommodations at the hotel were superb! There was a terrific Alfa Art Show and a room full of vendors. We were happy to run into members Fred Frey and Beverley Fisher, Frank LaSala, and several other members from the NY and CT Chapters. We were thrilled to see AONE member Andy Kress’s company Performatek involved as a sponsor! Well done, Andy! With today’s technology, we are seeing some folks offering restoration parts that have not been available to us before. A notable few are:
I am pleased to announce that the 2015 Convention will be held in AONE’s backyard! Sponsored by the NY and CT Chapters, with AONE support, the convention will be based in Warwick, RI, with the track events at the new Thompson Speedway Road Course – more to follow!
The 2014 Convention will be held in Michigan. This will be a
non-conventional convention, more of a laid-back, low-key week of
Alfa related activities. The tour around the Lake Superior area
sounds wonderful! More to follow soon in Alfa Owner! |
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