Words and photo by Roberto Motta
ARESE 23 February 2019 – This year the ‘Scuderia del Portello’ celebrated its drivers and friends with the awarding of the ‘Campioni Alfa Romeo’, an event that the team has organized since 1993 to celebrate the past season and inaugurate the new one. As usual, the event took place in the halls of the splendid Alfa Romeo Historical Museum in Arese.
The event was attended by over 400 enthusiasts, including 220 members from 18 countries including the USA, Japan, Mexico, Israel, Australia, Japan, China, Malaysia and Finland. The Alfa Romeo Champion Award is not just a trophy; for lovers of the Milanese brand, it is an opportunity to come together, to relive the past season and make plans for the future; to find friends and meet and listen to drivers who been a part of Alfa Romeo history.
Alfa Romeo’s drivers (from Left): Gian Luigi Picchi, Andrea De Adamich, Arturo Merzario, Carlo Facetti, Gianni Giudici, Mauro Pregliasco, Bruno Giacomelli, Giorgio Francia, Fabrizio Giovanardi e Alex Caffi.
The ceremony began with a video that depicted the races and successes achieved by the Scuderia del Portello in 2018, a season crowned with 80 podium finishes and two official class championships for historic cars.
Among the members given a standing ovation were Arturo Merzario, honorary president of the Scuderia del Portello, Andrea De Adamich, Gian Luigi Picchi, Giorgio Francia, Bruno Giacomelli, Gianni Giudici, Fabrizio Giovanardi, Alex Caffi and Mauro Pregliasco, honored with the trophy celebrating the 55th anniversary of Autodelta.
During the event, Giovanni Serio, the winner of the 2018 Scuderia del Portello Club Member Championship, was awarded best driver, and numerous other awards were presented to the various drivers, sponsors and journalists in the automotive sector [including your reporter, Roberto Motta].
Giovanni Serio, the winner of the 2018 Scuderia del Portello Club Member Championship, received the award for best driver from Marco Cajani and Arturo Mezario.
President Marco Cajani and team manager Andrea Cajani took stock of the future and the Scuderia’s programs. He discussed the upcoming Milano-Dubai 2020 raid, a cultural caravan made up of historic and modern cars, which will bring the Italian automotive history, tradition, culture and innovation to the UAE (United Arab Emirates).
Among the cars that will participate in the raid is the Alfa Romeo 1900 prepared by the Scuderia del Portello in 2002 for Clay Regazzoni at the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico, equipped with a special driving system, as Regazzoni remained a paraplegic after his serious accident in Long Beach in 1980. It will be a fitting entry, for the main theme of this relay race is mobility at the service of all, and motorsport as an inclusive discipline for disabled people.
The Portello staff.
In his speech, Cajani illustrated the team’s projects and proudly emphasized that “Portello is the only official historic racing team supported by a major car manufacturer.” However, he also noted that “Today we are celebrating the birth of Alfa Racing in F1 which is the result of great sacrifices, even by Portello. This implies in the 2019 season the absence of economic support for our competitive activity.”
Nevertheless, the 2019 Scuderia del Portello’s event calendar is full of events starting with the Milan-San Remo Cup, followed by the Mille Miglia, the Giro di Sicilia, the Golden Cup of the Dolomites, the Targa Florio, the Franco Marzotti Cup, the Historic Minardi Day, the 109th Alfa Romeo Anniversary, the Goodwood Festival, the 24-hour Nürburgring, SPA Youngtimer Festival, the Nürburgring AvD Oldtimer GP and many others.
Tecno-Nanni Galli
Tecno-Montecarlo Nanni Galli on a test run.
After its debut at the Paris Motor Show in the past October, the Tecno-Montecarlo Nanni Galli edition had its shakedown on the Alfa Romeo Museum track in Arese. Driven by Fulvio Maria Ballabio, the new GT has only done demonstration laps, but thanks at an aggressive look and its Alfa Romeo engine, it was enough to make the fans dream.
The Nanni Galli V8 Ecoracing is the first GT of the Bologna-based company. It is equipped with the 503 horsepower 8-cylinder Alfa Romeo engine powered by LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas or liquid petroleum gas).
LPG Alfa is similar to the earlier Montecarlo.
The GT Nanni Galli V8 Ecoracing is the result of a meeting between Gianfranco Pederzani, founder (with his late brother Luciano) of Tecno, and two former F1 drivers, Fulvio Maria Ballabio and Nanni Galli. The discussions led to the rebirth of the Tecno brand. The name, Nanni Galli V8, was chosen to celebrate the close link with the driver and the Bolognese brand, known for their F1 car and excellent results with the Alfa Giulia GTA and 33/3.
The decision to use an ecological fuel such as LPG and to participate in competitions for non-polluting vehicles justifies the name Ecoracing.
The new Tecno was designed with carbon frame and body by the Finnish technician Sami Vatanen in collaboration with Bellasi Compositi di Novara. The GT V8 has a body clearly derived from the previous Montecarlo Automobili, which has a slightly retro flavor and resembles that of the racing Alfa 33s.
As friend to Andrea Cajani (Team Manager) , Membership to Scuderia del Portello and photographer, I was in Arese as happened last years. It is a very topic event for people who loves Alfa Romeo. In that day you can meet (as happened this years) the drivers and test-drivers that made great Alfa Romeo and listen to their stories.
Many thanks to Roberto Motta for his report of the day, Renzo