Finally a weekend of great weather lead to a fantastic event at the Galleria Marchetti this past Sunday, June 26th. Cars began showing up just after 9:00 AM and arrived in a constant procession for over an hour. As our congregation grew, so did the quality of vehicles parked on Erie Street in front of Joe Marchetti's former garage which now houses his family's Galleria Marchetti restaurant. We had a 308QV, multiple 328s, a 348SS, multiple 355s, 360s and 430s representing the standard V8s, two 365BBs, a 512BBi, a couple TRs, a 612 and beautiful 599 rounded out the twelve-cylinder production cars. The truly special cars our members brought were a loved and properly used F40, a beautiful one-off 250 GT Drogo, a same family owned since the late 1960's 275GTB/4 and a 94 point at the FCA '10 Nationals 365GTB/4 Daytona.

In total we had 24 cars to make it one of our larger attendances in recent years for this event. JP Marchetti and his staff did a spectacular job of providing us with a fantastic Italian brunch that left everyone fat and happy. Lastly, the Best in Show award was chosen by JP for the car he liked the most. This year it well deservedly went to David Riff for the stunning yellow 275 GTB/4 he brought. JP mentioned it most resembled the photograph inside his restaurant of his father's old yellow 250 SWB and therefore deserved the Best in Show award. We agree with JP on that one! Congratulations David!

As always, big time thanks to Hugh Ruthven for arranging this event and to JP Marchetti and his entire staff for putting on a first class affair. We hope to see even more people there next year.

May 21 & 22 the Central State region hosted our annual track event at Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, Michigan. This year proved to be a resounding success with 27 of our members and guests bringing out a great variety of cars. As usual, the event started off with dinner and cocktails at the Vineyard on the edge of downtown South Haven where typical pre-track conversations ranged from the excitement of the years first track event to blowing up an engine from a down shift mistakenly happening instead of an up shift.

Saturday morning came none too quickly and the track was green by 9am. The drivers were divided up into three run groups, beginner, intermediate and advanced, with a breadth of cars in each group ranging from a Mondial 3.2 and 348 to the a couple of 458s, Challenge cars, 599 GTO and 333SP along with a number of BMW M3s, Corvette Z06, Lotus Elises, Porsche 911s and 968 and a Pegasus WCS car that raced Daytona & Sebring. With the great diversity in cars, the commonality amongst all participants was the excitement to be on the track. Luckily, as it was last year, everyone had a great respect for one another on the track and others skills at speed making it was a very safe event with lap times continually decreasing throughout the day.

Saturday night Continental AutoSports opened up their house for all attendees to come by for a barbecue. A good 50 people showed up and by the end of the evening (or morning technically) the food was gone and the coolers were empty. Thanks guys!

Sunday came and brought perfect weather with it reaching the mid 70's and very sunny. By the middle of the day we had merged the run groups to provide those still in attendance additional track time and toward the end of the day stamina was the motivating factor in people calling it a weekend.

Thank you to all our members for attending and making this event a tremendous success. Also, thank you to the guys at Continental AutoSports for providing the technical support to the drivers as there were a handful of cars up on jacks throughout the two days.

Stay tuned for 2012 as there may be more to this events next year.

Ferrari pulled several of their original race cars from various ages out of storage, flew them around the world, and filmed them running through the streets of Rome, Rio, New York, Hong Kong, Honolulu, and Monaco.

From the basso-profundo notes of the early, front-engine era, each scene cuts to a later generation, ending with the wail of a modern F1 car. The sounds alone bring a tear to the eye.

Even if you're not a gearhead, this video will stir the soul.

The annual FCA Central States track weekend at Gingerman Raceway was a fantastic event from beginning to end. The weekend started Friday evening with an impromptu Italian dinner in downtown South Haven with about 30 of us meeting at The Vineyard for drinks and food. Afterward about half of us made it down the street to a bar situated atop a boat harbored on the water to share stories about past Gingerman weekends in anticipation of our track time ahead.

Saturday morning started at sunrise with a driver's meeting hosted by Dan Harrison, who managed to threaten bodily harm (multiple times) to anyone who did not adhere to the track rules for the weekend. By 8 am the track was green and our three run groups, beginner, intermediate and advanced were off heating up their brakes and scrubbing rubber off their tires. We had a fabulous range of cars in attendance, ranging from a 328 and Mondial 3.2 to a 360 Challenge Stradale and a newly delivered 458 for street cars along with 348 and 355 Challenge cars and the 333 SP for the racers. As usual, our driver coaches, Martin, Patrick and Mike all did a fantastic job teaching the correct line and braking points enabling everyone to go much faster each session out.

Saturday evening the guys from Continental opened their rented beach house (which seemed like it was right out of Malibu) to the club for dinner and cocktails. Mostly everyone from the track made it to the house to swap stories from the day, other track weekends and a variety of other good, bad and comical situations our vehicles and (sometimes poor) decisions have gotten us into. Many thanks to Terri and Lisa for making sure everyone was well fed!

Saturday night's festivities led to a little more relaxed Sunday morning that allowed us a few extra minutes of sleep. Our run sessions were merged into two groups beginner/intermediate and advanced, providing everyone with even more track time. After lunch we reversed the direction of the track giving all drivers the challenge of navigating essentially a foreign track.

By the end of the afternoon on Sunday everyone was thoroughly spent from time on the track, the festivities the nights before and the great conversations by all.

Next year's Gingerman track rental was also solidified so mark your calendar for May 21 & 22, 2011 to be in South Haven, Michigan for this fine weekend.

This years Geneva Concours marked the return of the FCA having special reserved parking on Fulton Street & in front of the new restaurant Fiora's (group consensus was unanimous, their food is exceptional!). We had perfect weather and a great turnout for the event; 180 cars in the overall councours, 20 of which were Prancing Horses. The FCA sponsored separate Club Awards again this year with the winners being:

Silver: Kurt Karlson 1989 328-GTS
Gold: Robert Liljegren 2000 550 Maranello
Platinum: David Riff 1983 512 BB

Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch?

We recently teamed up with Pete Miller's Seafood and Prime Steak in Wheeling, IL and brought an entirely new event to the 2010 season! This event featured a huge Ferrari parking area, one of the most elegant outdoor dining patios on the North Shore and a complimentary lunch for each participant driver and guest.

Cars began arriving at Ambrosia Euro - American Patisserie in Barrington a little after 9am on Saturday, May 8th. We were hoping the weather would hold out as Tom Skilling predicted we would have an overcast (but dry) Rally to Lake Geneva. Everyone gathered for a little over an hour inside Ambrosia while approximately 19 Ferraris ranging from a silver 275 GTB to a new California and a 308 QV to a 430 Coupe gathered outside accompanied by a Rolls-Royce Corniche, Aston Martin and Porsche. Shortly after 10am our Rally Master, Hugh Ruthven addressed the crowd with our 119.2 mile route up through the countryside to our destination of the Geneva Inn. The Rally was a success without anyone running out of gas or receiving speeding tickets, however, there were more than a few of us that made a couple wrong turns. After everyone successfully arrived at the Geneva Inn many enjoyed a cocktail in the bar before we were served a fantastic lunch overlooking the lake. Concluding lunch, the Geneva Inn's hostess, Alice, was chosen to pick out the car that won the Spring Rally 2010 award. After surveying the sea of red cars in the parking lot, Joe Pitulla's 2006 430 coupe was picked by Alice because "[her] husband told her to pick one of the cars where you can see the engine." All in all it was a great day of rallying, conversation and dining. Thanks to everyone who came out, we hope to see you next year.

Now that we are officially recognized by the Ferrari Factory and part of the world wide family of Ferrari Clubs, we will receive, from time to time, invitations to special functions and the like. This note describes one such offer.

As you know, through our authorized Ferrari Dealers, we have been able to arrange individual tours of the Ferrari Factory in Maranello. Now, as part of the world wide family of official Ferrari Clubs, we can also arrange to do so as a larger Club group. As we are well into 2010, the calendar of available dates for such tours is largely full, however, the Factory is holding open tour availability on September 17th for a group of our members who might wish to participate. They can accommodate up to 40 people (in two groups of 20), starting at 2:30 pm that Friday afternoon. In addition, should a group of our members wish to take such a tour, but on a different date, the Factory will try to accommodate us, albeit on a space available basis. Please remember that they give many tours to owners from many countries, with only a limited number being conducted in English.

So, if you are seeking individual tours, please continue to work through your dealers. But, if you would like to seek such a tour as part of a larger group of our members, please let us know and we will relay your request to the Factory.

As we are just getting started with such arrangements, we will likely need to work some kinks out in our processes, but bear with us as we all work together to get things operating smoothly. To begin with, please send any requests for such a group tour to Theresa Gilpatrick (tgipat@hostworks.com), who will coordinate the material and work with me to send it on to Ferrari. Please do remember that this is for larger groups; for small groups or singles, please work through your dealer as you have in the past.

Many Thanks,
Al DeLauro

Amici Miei! An epic event is now in the planning stage.

The Ferrari Club of America - 50th Anniversary Celebration

Fellow Ferraristi,

It gives me great pleasure to announce our plans to have the grandest celebration in our history! One to celebrate our 50th Anniversary as a Club.

2012 through 2013 marks the 50th Anniversary of the one year period in which the Ferrari Club of America was formed and incorporated. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to celebrate our great Club and all things Ferrari. Indeed, we are planning a year-long event, one that will honor our past, celebrate our future and directly involve each and every one of our 16 Regions. A dedicated leadership team is hard at work, in conjunction with each of your Region Directors, to plan a time that we will all remember.

We anticipate that Ferrari will take an active part in the celebration; expect to see our new relationship with them provide additional enhancements to our festivities.

Be on the lookout for exciting new details as we move forward toward making this Celebration a reality.

The revitalization of the Ferrari Club of America, begun last year, reached another milestone last weekend in the form of a new link in our relationship with Ferrari S.p.A. and Ferrari North America. Since recognized by Enzo Ferrari himself in 1964, the FCA has generally enjoyed a mutually supportive and productive relationship with Ferrari, both in Italy and in North America. This synergy grows stronger now with a new agreement resolving differences, enriching our working relationship and furthering Ferrari's efforts to protect its intellectual property. As the FCA prepares to enter its second half century, this mutually supportive relationship between the FCA and the factory will assist our ongoing comprehensive program to update and modernize the look, feel, and nature of our Club.

"Ferrari Club of America stopped in to do a little touring of the track in their Beautiful Ferraris and Team Stradale showed them how to drive them on the track and do it safely. We had a lot of fun, and we got to see some great cars, both old and new."

-Francesco D'Avola of Team Stradale

Video by Dustin Grove of our 11th annual Children's Memorial Hospital Benefit at Italian Village.

On Sunday June 29th the Central States Region hosted the Ferrari and Friends Numero Due Italian luncheon. The event was held at Galleria Marchetti near downtown Chicago. In the unique setting of the Galleria's garden some of the club member's classic Ferraris were on display. In front of the Galleria on W. Erie Street, special parking was available for the newer Ferraris along with parking for our friends from the Lamborghini Club.

The 65 FCA members and guests were treated to a specially prepared Italian lunch including an assortment of appetizers, main course choices and desserts. After the luncheon, 3 awards were announced by J.P. Marchetti.

2008 J.P. Marchetti Award of Excellence - Joe Pitulla and his red 2006 F430.
2008 Mary Jane Marchetti Award of Excellence - Dave Bendl and his black 1982 512 BBI.
2008 Joe Marchetti Award of Excellence - Merv Rosen and his red 1966 330GTC.

Our many thanks go to Pete Consolo and Hugh Ruthven for their efforts in arranging another fabulous event.

On Saturday May 10, 25 Ferrari drivers and their co-pilots met at Ambrosia Euro-American Patisserie in Barrington for our annual spring drive. This year's drive left Barrington at 10:30 and headed out on a 2 and a half hour tour of the secondary back roads of Southern Wisconsin. Our luncheon destination this year was the French Country Inn/ Kirsch's Restaurant on Lake Como.

The rally route was put together by Hugh Ruthven complete with excellent directions for all the co-pilotos to use. Our route took us thru Barrington Hills, Richmond, Genoa City on to the Lake Geneva area rustic roads and north thru Lyons and then back to Lake Como for our luncheon.

The French Country Inn opened early for our Club and they prepared a salad with a choice of entres and dessert for all the hungry guests. This year we asked Kirsch's head chef to pick the Ferrari he liked the best from the 25 cars in his parking lot. His choice was Bill Rosen's 1969 365GT 2+2. Bill was awarded a trophy and a round of applause by all of the guests. After lunch and another tour of the parking lot to admire the cars we all headed home.