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The fourth annual Thompson Motorsports Vintage Weekend and Alfa Romeo Corral greeted fans and racers alike with some early-morning damp and rainy conditions. As the racers guided their wonderful (and fragile) machines around the damp track, the Alfista faithful wandered in with tops up and sunroofs closed. Fortunately, late morning saw clearing skies and warm temperatures! Although I have been following vintage racing for some 48 years (I saw my first Alfa at Thompson in the summer of 1968), I found the racing quite confusing! As always, there were mixed classes running together, but there were some races that included a selection of cars, while many (but not all) of those same cars ran in another race. My conclusion is that this had something to do with the dual sanctioning, but I'm definitely not certain. A suggestion was made to the folks at Thompson to ask the vintage clubs to offer a basic fan guide for future events. During the track workers' lunch break, we were treated to several laps around the track. Remember what I said earlier about sunny skies? Well, about three laps into the parade laps the sky opened up in a very big way! Although some tops were rapidly lifted, a particular 4C Spider owner found out that his modern targa roof does not go up as quickly as his old spider top (right, Gene)? As I looked across the track at Jim and Patti DeWaele's impressive lunch spread, I witnessed lightning reflexes as everything was scooped up and safely stored in the trusty Subaru! With the rain disappearing as quickly as it came, the grill was fired up and Jim and Patti treated everyone to a wonderful lunch — hotdogs, burgers and sausage with all the fixin's, including peppers and fried onions, topped off with a scrumptious salad from Nancy Perry! As lunch wrapped up, the racing resumed. Alfa racer Roger Cassin generously set up a canopy to give us some much-needed shade as the caterpillars did quite a job on the speedway's trees (by the way, nice drives, Roger!). All in all, it was a great day — Alfas, race cars, great food and, as always, wonderful camaraderie! See you next year! [Hats off to Gene Durso, John and Jim DeWaele, Tom Letourneau, Dan Donovan, and the other AONErs who did such a splendid job organizing the Alfa Car Corral! —Ed.] Alfa Car Corral Participants Peter Lombardo - 4C
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(Click on the thumbnails below for a larger view, and then
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Alfa Car Corral
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See the original event announcement
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This year's event saw dual sanctioning from the VSCCA (Vintage Sports Car Club of America) and the VRG (Vintage Racers Group), clubs with an overall entry of approximately 160 cars, including a terrific contingent of Alfas — Spiders and GTs, Giuliettas and Giulias! I was very impressed with the overall preparation of all the cars as well as the diversity of the entries, from the quick and nimble Formula Fords to the ground-pounding Corvettes and Camaros!
