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Alfas Battle at Lime Rock VSCCA Fall Finale

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Epic Alfa Battle. Photo by Michael Dipleco.

Story by Sean Smith
Photos by Sean Smith unless otherwise noted

Anniversaries are meant to be celebrated. Alfa Romeo was having a big one – 110 years old. There were many celebrations planned, but 2020 gave us a nasty slap in the face with COVID 19, and the carefree world of vintage racing got put on everyone’s back burner with events being canceled across the country. No racing, no camaraderie, no fun. We all had more serious things to think about. We got locked in, locked down, and locked out. Summer passed by with very few high points.

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Alfa Amore: Learning, Winning and Cheating

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Taking the Loeber receptionist for a victory lap at State Fair Park in 1981.

By BS Levy

Would you sell your soul for half-a-second? OK, how about a WHOLE second?

As detailed last time, with our extensive rulebook reading (much of it between the lines) and subsequent garage preparation at the dealership (which, BTW, rampaged through our checking account like Godzilla demolishing Tokyo…but, jeez, don’t tell Carol) we had a promising track weapon with which to do battle. Even so, it was obvious we had some dialing-in and detailing to do. Which meant money.

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BS Levy: More Alfa Amore

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Burt’s agile Alfa nips adroitly to the inside of a lumbering Datsun Z-Car at Blackhawk Farms Turn Four. Courtesy BS Levy

By BS Levy

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Read Part 2

There’s a great story about a younger friend who came to visit the irreverent, irascible and famously sour comedian W.C. Fields in the hospital towards the end of his life. The friend was surprised to find him leafing through a copy of the Holy Bible. The friend of course asked what he was doing, and the oft-taciturn W.C. arched up an eyebrow and answered: “Lookin’ for loopholes, son. Lookin’ for loopholes…”

And that, dear friends, is where one begins, in the dead of a Midwestern winter—rulebook in hand and green 1974 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce racecar-to-be sitting as-yet untouched in the garage—dreaming, scheming, plotting and planning how to build a world-beater. Or, on a slightly less ambitious scale, a top-flight Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs Showroom A-class contender.

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BS Levy Part 2, Alfa Amore

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Alfa Amore? The reader who submits the funniest caption gets a free copy of The Last Open Road. Please send caption to vack@cox.net.

Story by Burt Levy

Read Part 1

Hello again!

As you may recall, we last left our story of “Burt Levy, Racing Driver Semi-Extraordinaire” somewhere in the dusty, paint fume-infused interior of Loeber Motors third-floor body shop on Chicago’s trendy/money-spendy near north side. That’s where I found my soon-to-be-beloved and not-so-nearly totaled (no matter what the insurance company was led to believe) 1974 Alfa Spider racecar. [Read more…] about BS Levy Part 2, Alfa Amore

Burt Levy on Selling and Racing Alfa Romeos

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My first win in an Alfa Romeo, co-driving the resurrected “totaled” ’74 Alfa Spider a Midwestern Council Enduro with my friend Mike, who also worked at Mellow Motors.

By Burt Levy

Craig Morningstar was a big, Viking-looking guy with a great sense of humor, a huge love for Italian cars and motorcycles and a massive taste for fun. And he needed that sense of humor because it was his job to visit Alfa dealerships, make nice with the dealership principals and staff and smooth the ruffled feathers of sometimes—no, make that more than sometimes—indignant recent Alfa purchasers who had encountered difficulties, real or imagined, that the dealership couldn’t seem to satisfy. [Read more…] about Burt Levy on Selling and Racing Alfa Romeos

Alfa Finds a New Life, Part 3

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By Pete Vack

The Editor wraps up the story of the Alfa Find with the help of Brighton Motors, Dr. Peter Fodor, Matt at Re-Originals, and current owner Frank Allocca.

As we have seen, the Alfa found in a horse barn in 1977 passed quickly from the editor to the home of Alfas Unlimited in Norfolk CT., where Keith Goring and Sue Dixon decided to make a vintage race car out of the engineless Alfa. The Sprint Veloce would stay with them until in 2007 when they finally gave up the old workhorse race car and sold it.

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