On Wednesday evening, September 14th Cindy Bennett and I participated in a Zoom meeting with President Cindy Banzer and representatives from different chapters across the nation. According to WebMaster, John Justus, National had about 5,000 images of member cars online. For some reason the images could not be transferred when National converted to Club Express, the current website platform. There exists a mechanism with Club Express to enable members to post images of their cars. Currently they have about 400 hundred pictures online. John emphasized a desire to get more images posted.
Let’s try to accommodate him and get as many cars online as we can. If you have not previously done so, please sign in at AROC-USA.Clubexpress.com and post your cars. Once at Club Express go to “Members ALFAs” and you will find instructions on uploading your own pictures. You can enter as much detail as you want. It also has a function by which you can search members cars by type, name and chapter.
Let’s bury him in pictures.
Thanks Dennis
CAROC\Mem-0991522

After a Covid-related hiatus last year, the club picnic returned to the CAROC calendar in August. Turnout at our traditional Barbara Key Park location was excellent, no doubt tapping into the need for social contact after the pandemic lockdowns and a quiet winter. We were delighted to host a number of new generation Alfas alongside a good showing of the vintage cars. It has been quite a few years since Alfa returned to US shores, but we are finally seeing the momentum build as the new owners become aware of the club and what it has to offer. We hope to welcome many more late model Alfisti to our future events. View photos of the event in the gallery.
After catching up with old friends and making new ones, we settled down to an excellent buffet from our long-time caterer, Bill Linardos. A short but intense downpour had us huddling together under the park shelter, aside from a couple of members who waited out the storm in their cars, having rushed to raise tops and close windows. Fortunately the weather cleared fairly quickly and we were able to continue where we left off. After everyone had eaten their fill, Dennis presented a certificate of appreciation to Barb Carroll in thanks for her long service to the club as a board member and frequent volunteer. Barb retired from the board at the end of 2020, and we had hoped to announce the award at our 2021 banquet. But since that event was changed to a Zoom meeting, we decided to hold out for the next opportunity to present it in person. That turned out to be the picnic, making the award long overdue but in no way diminishing our gratitude to Barb for her many contributions! (Author Dave Johnson)

Well, we have finally returned to our monthly gathering. We made a triumphant return to Avanti Caffe’ in Mount Prospect. Mauro was as glad to see us as we were to be there. The patio seating is ideal and the food, of course, as good as ever. Those appearing were Mike Bazarek, Chip Van Sant, Marco Battistoni, Tony Cavaliere, Dave Johnson, John Gobey, Robert Clauss and myself. Julie Fixler planned on coming but she was distracted by buying another ALFA Stelvio. I suppose it is an indication that she has her priorities in order. Cindy Bennett was busy traipsing around million dollar rolling art at Amelia Island. I guess she has her priorities in order as well. You should check out her pictures on Facebook.
We also toasted our recently passed, long time friend and member, Eric Goldmann. God’s speed Eric

Greetings all. After these many months of doing little with our friends, we plan to resume our monthly gatherings on the third Thursday of the month. We plan to return to Avanti in Mount Prospect.
Avanti Cafe
1900 S. Elmhurst Road Mount Prospect, IL 60056 (847) 437-6640
Weather permitting, we’ll use the outdoor dining area. We will continue to meet at Avanti until further notice.
Come out and see how much we’ve all aged in the last 14 months.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE, commencing on January 1 through January 15, 2021 we held an election for Trustees.
This year we had only one vacancy for an Officer position and one new candidate. Cindy Bennett was the only individual to submit her candidacy for the vacant Treasurer position and as such elected by default.
As you may be aware we recently conducted our annual election for Directors/Trustees. There was no actual election for Officers as there was only one vacancy and only one new candidate. Your Board of Directors for the year 2021 will be the following:
President: Dennis M. Sbertoli
Vice President: Sandy Ganun
Secretary: Marco Battistoni
Treasurer: Cynthia A. Bennett
Directors/Trustees:
David Johnson, Chip Van Sant, Wayne Toberman, Robert Clauss
There were 17 ballots returned and the tally is as follows:
Dave Johnson 16; Chip Van Sant 17; Wayne Toberman 15; Robert Clauss 15; Doug Clark 4.
We welcome returning members and newcomers to the BoD. Remember, it’s your club and we encourage participation by all.
Dennis M. Sbertoli Pres.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE, commencing on January 1 through January 15, 2021 we shall conduct an election for Trustees.
This year we had only one vacancy for an Officer position and one new candidate. Cindy Bennett was the only individual to submit her candidacy for the vacant Treasurer position and as such elected by default.

Officers for 2021 are:
President: Dennis M. Sbertoli
Vice-President: Sandy Ganun
Treasurer: Cindy Bennett (replacing Barb Carroll)
Secretary: Marco Battistoni

There are four Director/Trustee positions comprised of four incumbents and one new nominee.
Current Trustees: David Johnson, Chip Van Sant, Wayne Toberman and Robert Clauss. Tony Cavaliere serves as Executive Advisor.
Doug Clark has volunteered to serve as a Trustee for the next year.

Doug’s bio: Joined AROC in the spring of 2018 prior to buying his first Spider (a Series 3) that summer...was a previous member from 2003 to 2006, when as a FIAT Spider 2000 owner, he joined since there was no FIAT club in the area...also is a member of local and national MG and Triumph clubs (also likes Italian-designed British sports cars)...served as a past Organizer and President of Chi-FLU (the local chapter of FIAT Club America)...hopes to bring ideas and experiences from his other car groups to CAROC to add to our Chapter's enjoyment of ALFA Romeos.

Following this note you will find our Ballot. Please mark it with your choices. Remember to vote for only four in the Trustee category. You can mark and return it to:
marco-battistoni@comcast.net

You can also Vote On-line.
As an alternative to scanning and returning to Marco you can send Marco an email with your selections.

Respectfully submitted;
Dennis M. Sbertoli January 1, 2021

Thanks to all the shut-downs we have done little as group since March when we raced at K-1 Indoor Karting in Buffalo Grove. We did participate in a couple open air events such as a couple tours in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, Robert Clauss lead us on an excellent drive from Shaumburg to Black Hawk Farms. We had the pleasure of running with some American Iron as the Northern Illinois Streeters joined us. We also returned the favor by doing a couple of the Streeters’ Fun Runs into Southern Wisconsin. They are a fun group of people.

On Sunday October 18th we conducted our second board meeting of the year. Cindy Bennett was kind enough to set up a Zoom conference and it worked out quite well. We will likely continue to meet via Zoom for the duration of Covidiocy.
We discussed upcoming activities for the next year. We picked the following dates for BoD meetings and encourage the general membership to participate. BoD meetings will be at 9:00 unless specified otherwise. Upcoming dates are; December 13, March 14, 2021, June 13, September 12 and December 5.
Due to the restaurant situation the banquet is up in the air. The same is true with our monthly Thursday gatherings. When things open up again we will resume our prior practices.
We tentatively set March 27th for a return to indoor racing at K1 in Buffalo Grove. As the date approaches, look to the website for details.
Mark your calendars for April 11. Cindy Bennett and Robert Clauss are organizing a tour to the Galena area via the Stagecoach Run. Watch for details as to time and meeting location.
For Spring and Summer we have the following Road America dates; May 14-16 Spring Vintage, June 4-6 June Sprints, June 17-20 Indy Cars, July 1-4 NASCAR, July 15-18 The Redman, August 5-8 IMSA and September 17-19 Fall Vintage VSCDA.

Also, depending on the status of the pandemic, we tentatively agreed to resume our Blackhawk Farms track day on June 26. We also anticipate opening discussions with the Lotus Club to consider a joint effort.
Hopefully, we can also resume our picnic in mid-August. It and the banquet have always been our best attended events.

On club business, I will be preparing a Notice and Call for Nominations to serve as an officer or director of the club. I’ve already had some inquiries from members interested in joining the BoD. As always, we welcome the support and input.

At our meeting we also discussed the possibility of a two-day tour. If you have an interest in participating please drop me a note. No dates have been considered at this time as we need to gage general interest first.
Thanks for reading,

I am writing to let you know that due to all this Corona virus madness we have elected to cancel the track event previously scheduled for June 6 . We struggled with this issue for several weeks and ultimately concluded that even if gathering restrictions are relaxed by June we would have difficulty securing sufficient participants to make it work. Officials at Blackhawk Farm graciously agreed to allow us to cancel the contract and refund our deposit. They had no contractual obligation to allow us to cancel at this point but did so out of consideration for our long standing relationship.

In consideration of the courtesy extended to us by Blackhawk I would strenuously encourage all of our track people to patronize other events this year at Blackhawk. I don’t know how many more events will be canceled but, to the extent they are not, I would like to return the favor by shifting as many of our track people to other Blackhawk events. Please see the Blackhawk Farms web site for their schedule. Www.blackhawkfarms.com

We expect to be back for next year’s event.

Beyond the impact on Blackhawk we have postponed all of our social gatherings as well. Once we know what is happening with regard to closures I will post an announcement restoring whatever we can to our schedule. I guess you can look at the bright side, at least we weren’t hit by an asteroid. Nobody wants to go the way of the dinosaur.

The Chicago Chapter, ALFA Romeo Owner’s Club has been contacted by National President, Cindy Banzer about the possibility of Chicago hosting the 2021 National Convention. As you may know we did host it in 2008 and it was considered a success. At this point we have made no commitment either way.
The purpose of this note is to apprise the general membership and to gauge interest. Generally, it is a very big undertaking requiring multiple contributions from the group. National conventions typically have daily activities throughout the 4 day event. Recently there has been a pre-convention tour through the locality. Without limitation, events conducted during the week consist of: hosting the National Board’s annual meeting (a day long event); tech sessions during the event; at least one track type event1; events of general interest such as a rally or day trip to some point of interest2; a car show; vendor tables; and a closing banquet. The activities listed here are by no means exhaustive and may include others or variations. I do know the track event, car show and banquet are required. Planning these activities requires a great deal of advance calling and legwork. If we were to do it we would need to establish some committees and get plans going immediately.
It does also require a major financial commitment. Venues such as AutoBahn, banquet halls, hotels typically require a deposit to hold a date. In 2008 we were more financially solvent than we are now. The financial considerations are a sizable concern.
Dave Hammond has significant experience with putting these shows on and is identified as the liaison between the Chapter and National.
1We conducted a track event at AutoBahn in Joliet as well as an autocross in Villa Park. 2We had a mob themed rally and a tour to Lake Shore Drive.

Before going any further we need to know who might be interested in making a firm commitment and what special skills you might bring to the table.

We have a Board of Directors meeting coming up on February 9th and this will be on the agenda. Our BoD meeting will be at 9:00 A.M. at:
Panera Bread-Deer Park 20530 Rand Road #448
Deer Park, IL

I invite anybody who may have an interest to come and express your thoughts.
Dennis M. Sbertoli, Pres. (708) 579-9724

On Sunday September 8, 2019, your Board of Directors conducted its third meeting of the year. Members present were: Dennis Sbertoli, Sandy GaNun, Barb Carroll, Dave Johnson Tony Calvaliere, Wayne Toberman and Chip Van Sant. Present also were John Gobey and Wayne Seely.
The next Board Meeting will be December 8, 2019 and we welcome any member’s attendance. Check the web site to verify location and time. We truly want your input.
Matters on the agenda consisted of our calendar, our recent Blackhawk Farms track event, our financial condition, future events. As you may be aware, we ran the Blackhawk event in conjunction with the AUDI Club and encountered significant communication deficiencies with the AUDI team. As of Sunday morning we had no financial figures from them. However, Wayne Seely reports that he did receive figures from Ed Nork after our meeting was concluded. Wayne is in the process of reconciling the figures with ours. At first glance it would appear that both clubs lost money on the event. We should have solid figures shortly and will share them on the web site.

Upcoming events:
Fields Auto Group’s grand opening
Dyno and Donuts
Columbus Day Parade
Fall Tour
Annual Banquet

In November I anticipate soliciting nominations for Officers and Board Members. If you want to join the board and contribute to the management of your club, now is the time to do it. If you are interested there’s no need to wait, drop me a note.

To the extent that our events are posted with tentative dates watch the CAROC Website for further details. Additionally, we anticipate detailed email blasts to go out in advance of the events. And, of course, don’t forget our next regular meeting on September 18, 7:00 P.M., at Famous Dave’s in Addison.

We are an all-volunteer organization and are always looking for more participation from our members. If you have and idea for an outing or event, let us know. If you have a special skill to contribute, let us know, we need everybody to make it a better group. Please consider offering your service as a board member. We have not put out our newsletter, The Sotto Veloce for several years now and are looking for an editor. If you are willing to take on the task of publishing we definitely want to hear from you..

Well, we’ve made it through 2/3rds of the Winter so far and I just wanted to remind everybody that we will be resuming our monthly meetings at Famous Dave’s in Addison. Our next get together will be Thursday February 21st at 7:00. If you’ve never come out before, now is the time to start.

I also want to remind everybody that we have our indoor karting event at K1 in Buffalo Grove on March 9th at 1:00 PM. Please see the web site for details on registering. It was a great time last year so come out and show your driving skills.

We were also invited by the MG Club to participate in the 23rd annual swap meet to be held at the Du Page County Fairgrounds on March 17th in Wheaton. They are making an effort to transition from an all British event to a “Sports Car” event. The have invitations out to other groups such as the Corvair and Miata clubs. I know some of our members have attended in the past. Should you desire more information check out their web site. www.britishcarswap.info

Also in March we will have our annual Model Car Night in conjunction with our monthly meeting on the 21st. We will likely meet at D’Agostinos on Higgins as we did before. I will fill in more details as the date approaches.

Your Board will be meeting on Sunday March 10 at Panera Bread. We invite everybody to come and offer their two cents. We do want to hear from you as it’s your club too.

In the long range, mark your calendars for June 29 and 30 for our track day at Blackhawk Farms in South Beloit. We had an excellent turnout last year and we hope for the same this year.

Warm wishes to everybody on this zero degree day.
Saturday night we treated ourselves to a terrific night at 100 South Chop House in historic Elmhurst. Of course, you know by now, it was our annual banquet night. We started the night with fried calamari accompanied by peppers and sausage. The meal consisted of chicken marsala and beef rigatoni. We finished it off with ice cream. But it was more than just a night of eating and imbibing, we got to share an evening of friendship and camaraderie. We got to meet some new folks and old. Once again Dennis and Frances Rickkets and made the trek from Davenport Iowa to join us. It’s always a great pleasure to see the Rickkets. For new owner/members we had the opportunity to break bread with Julie Fixler and a man introduced to me as “TK.” I did not get TK’s last name but I suspect he’ll be around throughout the year. I understand he’s already found his way to Besic Motorsports. I traded emails with Julie several weeks ago so it was a pleasure to put a face to a name. We welcome both Julie and TK to the group as well as anybody I did not meet.

Our Board of Directors remains the same as last year:
President: Dennis Sbertoli Vice President: Sandy GaNun Secretary: Marco Battistoni Treasurer: Barb Carroll
Directors: Dave Johnson, Wayne Toberman, Robert Clauss and Chip Van Sant and Tony Cavaliere as Executive Advisor.

Long time member, Sandy Ga Nun was recognized for his selfless contributions to the club with a lifetime achievement award. Sandy was unable to attend but his efforts are greatly appreciated. Relatively new member, John Gobey jumped right in and has taken a leadership role in managing our group. An experienced racer and instructor, John has made great contributions to our track events. For this, John was recognized as ALFISTI of the Year. Many thanks and congratulations John. Our final award, The Tazio Nuvolari Award is given to somebody who demonstrates an exceptional enthusiasm for track and racing events. This year we proudly award St. Louis resident, Mike Pranka. Mike could not be with us this year but his plaque will be shipped to him.
Thanks to George Mikhail for making those instrumental phone calls and setting up our banquet. And a huge thank you to all those that contributed to our door prize table. Please patronize our benefactors: Centerline/International, Motorsport Collector, Semeria Imports and Besic Motorsport. Additionally, longtime member Bill Sigfriedt was good enough to clean out a closet and donate old copies of the ALFA Owner and Sotto Veloce. Thanks Bill. (I suspect Corky had something to do with it. But that’s just a guess)

Next on our calendar will be further discussions with the AUDI Club regarding our combined effort at Blackhawk Farms next June. Our planning committee will be meeting theirs’ on Saturday the 2nd of February at Panera Bread in Deer Park, Illinois.
We will return to our regular monthly meeting on February 21 at Famous Dave’s Barbeque in Addison, Illinois. Come join us.

On March 9th at one P.M., we will be going back to K-1 indoor karting for some kart racing. Pre-register for the event as well as directions.

Additionally, we also moved our quarterly Board Meeting from February 10 to March 10th at 9:00 A.M., at Panera Bread, Deer Park, Illinois. Board meetings are open to the membership and we encourage members to attend. It’s your club and we welcome your input and suggestions.

If you have the gift of gab or even the ability to assemble a series of cogent thoughts and want to put it to paper and express yourself about your affectation with ALFA Romeo we are always looking for somebody to resurrect our monthly news letter the Sotto Veloce. It’s been out of production for several years so we would really like to get it back on track.

Whether you are new or old we look forward to seeing you over the next year.

On Sunday December 10, 2018, your Board of Directors conducted its last meeting of the year. Members present were: Dennis Sbertoli, Sandy GaNun, Marco Battistoni, Barb Carroll, Dave Johnson Tony Cavaliere, Robert Clauss, Wayne Toberman and Chip Van Sant. Present also were John Gobey, as well as Wayne Seely and Don Brubaker who manage our track and web activities. We were also joined by Ed Nork from the Audi Chicagoland Club. Ed joined us for purposes of discussing the potential for a Blackhawk Farms effort.

The next Board Meeting will be March 10, 2019 and we welcome any member’s attendance. Check the web site calendar to verify location and time. We truly want your input.

Matters on the agenda consisted of our calendar, our Blackhawk Farms track event in summer, our financial condition, officers and directors, and general events.

Many thanks to all those who came out on 3/15 for Model Car Night at D’Agostinos in Park Ridge. It was a rousing success with about 15 members dropping in. As usual Bill Siegfriedt stole the show with his presentation. This year Bill organized his collection with a focus on drivers and the cars they drove at different points in their careers. Always attentive to detail, Bill even produced descriptive texts with driver photos explaining the significance of the presented rides. Of course Bill’s cars are impeccably constructed. READ ALL THE DETAILS

As an aside, our next big event is our track day at Blackhawk Farms on June 9th. Members of the BFR Committee are working diligently in promoting the event to various car and non car groups. Thanks to Wayne Toberman we may even have some members of the International Press Club of Chicago attending as spectators and drivers. Also, there may be a couple photography clubs around preserving our event. Time will tell.
Read the BFR FAQ.

We also plan to have a special Alfa only touring event. Read the story that prompted it.

So, put BFR and the Karting event on your calendar and tell your friends. Thanks for reading.
Dennis
March 16, 2018
Respectfully, Dennis M. Sbertoli

On 2/15/18 we had one of the biggest showings in several years at our monthly meeting at Avanti. Aside from the usual car chit/chat we also took up some business. Of paramount concern is our continued production of the Blackhawk Farms track day. Traditionally we run about the 4th of July holiday. Escalating costs and uncertain attendance have truly impacted our ability to produce this event. We have tentatively agreed to pursue June 9th as our day. Barb Carroll justifiably expressed her concerns over the financial risk. We’ve lost money the last couple years and you never know what the weather holds in store.

We agreed to designate a promotional coordinator. As of this moment that party has not been designated. That person’s function would be to coordinate an appeal to the various car groups to run with us. If you have connections with other track oriented groups let me know or put them in touch with me. It is our intention to put together a presentation package, script if you will, for presentation to other groups. Wayne Seely has already uploaded in-car video to the web site. Hopefully that will stir up some enthusiasm. The more people we get to help in promotion, the greater the chance for success. This event has been on our books for over 30 years and we do not want to give it up.

If you know a company or individual that would like to sponsor us let me know.

Much of the above will be addressed at our next board meeting set for Sunday February 25th at 9:00 A.M.
Panera Bread-Deer Park 20530 Rand Road #448
Deer Park, IL

If you did not make it to our annual banquet Saturday, January 27th you missed an excellent night out. We all met at 100 South Chop House and Grill in Elmhurst. The food could not have been better and the fried calamari was some of the best I’ve ever had.

Many thanks to George Mikhail for organizing the event. About 35 members and family attended, some traveling from as far as Dubuque, Iowa to visit with us. It’s nice to know some folks care enough to travel that distance just to hang out with our group. Since the weather was somewhat cooperative, we even spied a couple ALFAs parked on the street.
I would also encourage you to patronize our generous contributors:
Besic Motorsports - (630) 469-5626
Centerline ALFA - (888) 750-2532 www.centerlinealfa.com
Semeria Imports - (847) 537-5454 www.semeriaimports.com

Barbara Carroll benefited us by cleaning out her basement. She brought an entire box full of ALFA literature, plaques, newsletters and memorabilia. Chip Van Sant was good enough to toss in some shift knobs as well.

We also completed our election of officers and board of directors at the banquet. Officers were all unopposed and remain:
President - Dennis Sbertoli
Vice President - Sandy GaNun
Secretary - Marco Battistoni
Treasurer - Barb Carroll
Executive Advisor - Tony Cavaliere

Board of Directors - Robert Clauss, Wayne Toberman, Dave Johnson, Chip Van Sant

Many thanks to the folks willing to volunteer the time and effort.

Your board meets four times per year and you don’t need to be a BoD member to come. We welcome and encourage the general membership to participate. Remember, it’s your club not just ours. If you have an idea to improve the club or even a gripe, share it with us. Our next BoD meeting is February 25th 9:00 am at Panera Bread, Deer Park, Illinois.

We plan to do some fun things this year. Most immediately, April 7th, we will have our karting night at K1 in Buffalo Grove. For full details CLICK HERE. Model Car night March 15 at a location to be determined.

We propose to aggressively market our Blackhawk Farms track day. If you or anybody you know has any video from Blackhawk and want to share it, let us know. Also, if you know any other car clubs that may wish to join us let us know. We want to make it the most successful event we’ve ever done. Help promote it.

We have not published our newsletter, Sotto Veloce for a couple years and are looking for an editor. If you are interested please let me know.

Stay tuned for further updates and upcoming activities.
Respectfully, Dennis M. Sbertoli