By Enrique Zuniga

Even as a convention advisor it is not often that one has an opportunity to visit the venues of an upcoming convention, so when I received an invite to attend an evening convention planning meeting late last fall, I did not hesitate… and the visit quickly became an overnight stay at the convention hotel with a preview of what was in the works for our annual AROC gathering.

I fired up the Spider engine at 5am on the day of the meeting, setting off for the six-hour drive from northern NJ to Pittsburgh via the route with the most curves – the one that cuts through the mountains, of course… It’s always a joy to hear the engine purr turn into a roar as the nimble bella macchina cuts through the curves and cold morning air as the sun keeps rising.

Despite the forecasted possible rain that materialized into a full snow for forty-five minutes, I made it on time to the first venue: DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh Cranberry hotel.

Upon exiting the Spider I met my host: convention organizer and Pittsburgh chapter secretary, and 2019 Convention Chairman, Bernie Martin. I had spoken with Bernie many times over the phone and via video conference, but this was the first time we got to shake hands. As we stepped into the hotel lobby, I was taken in by the spacious feel and natural bright light afforded by the modern, totally open, layout.

The lobby, lounge, dining room and bar are completely unobstructed from any view point and the elevator’s glass wall allows for panoramic observation while riding up five stories. As we toured the hotel’s meeting rooms and business facilities, I took note of the gym, as well as an indoor pool and another pool outdoors. My room was impeccable, and my overnight stay would turn out to be most pleasant.

When we exited the hotel, Bernie pointed out that we were only 20 minutes from the second venue on our list: Pittsburgh International Race Complex. This re-modeled site offers perhaps the most comfortable setting we’ve ever had for our traditional Track Day. 

In addition to the expected driver and meeting room facilities we will have access to the air-conditioned VIP area which is often used to host large dinners and gatherings. I can see many of us enjoying a drink in total comfort while watching the competition taking place on the track below.

We will be running on a 1.6 mile course with 13 turns and exiting changes in elevation. As the track manager drove us around the course a few times, with the fun meter revving high, we commented on the opportunity for every AROC convention attendee to drive this course through what I am calling an Enhanced Parade Laps Experience.

Our traditional Autocross will also take place at the track premises. With the largest
paved area for an autocross that I have ever seen at a convention, this is a course
designer’s dream. Seasoned competitors and their cars will have ample staging room.
Furthermore, we will have a low-key staging area for a Novice Only group. As a full
motor sports facility, this complex also has a Go-Kart course. Karting has become very
popular because it is a blast and the course will be open during our Track Day.

The third venue stop was Jergel’s Rhythm Grille. From the onset, an evening at Jergel’s has been an enthusiastic component of the vision for this convention. Upon reading the website description however, “Jergel's Rhythm Grille" offers a unique live music experience in the Pittsburgh area with a 600-person capacity, full restaurant menu, cigar bar and patio!”. 

My vision was that of crowded bar, with loud music that made it impossible to communicate without screaming and appealing only to a very young age group.

Well, I could not have been more wrong. First, the setting is impressive and enormous. The pictures on the web do not do it justice. In the main floor, off to the side, there is a very cool looking and inviting oval bar with comfortable seating for at least 100 people. Yes, I counted!

The well-thought out bar area is not just generously spacious all around, but it does not collide in the least with the stage and main viewing area in front of the stage. In addition to the first floor, there is the even better second floor, which is the one negotiated for our convention. It is accessible via stairs or elevator, as the Jergel’s manager giving us the walk through pointed out.

Our convention will have full and exclusive access to the second floor, which has capacity for 250 people. The second floor has a square opening that overlooks the first floor, including the stage. The opening is built with a ledge for drinks and food and furnished with 60 plus chairs, each of which provide a front row seat to the stage below.

This floor also has an inviting bar, off to the side, with comfortable seating for 45 people. Furthermore, almost an entire wall of the second floor is lined with large booths and there are plenty of tables arranged throughout. I can honestly say that my vision of a crowded room was replaced with the reality of an easy-to-walk-around-and-mingle adult setting. Two-hundred and fifty of us will fit nicely and none of us will have to fight for a chair.

At this point it was clear that Jergel’s has a great setting, good food, drinks and reasonable prices, but I still had to ask about having to scream over music in order to communicate?

As it turns out, Bernie was already several steps ahead of me. The evening reserved for the convention features the music of accomplished musicians "Three Car Garage" who have already been selected and confirmed specifically by our chapter hosts.   We will be on the second floor enjoying a lovely evening, and others not associated to our convention may also enjoy our evening, but from the first floor only.

Last, the main parking lot in front of the entrance has been reserved for Alfa Romeo cars only.

The last venue we visited was the Pittsburgh Golf Club, founded in 1896. The convention will hold a Friday dinner at the Club as well as Car Show and Concours weekend. As expected, the grounds are beautiful, the place is immaculate, and classy with a sophisticated vintage feel. Our Alfas will feel very much at home in such elegant premises.

After a very full day, Bernie and I returned to the convention hotel for a full planning meeting. I got to meet some great AROC members. The majority were from the Pittsburgh chapter, of course, but there were other volunteers from neighboring chapters as well. A lot was discussed, but it is very important to note that while our convention is taking place, the city of Pittsburgh will be hosting the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, a major charity event which includes two weekends of historic races.

Our host AROC chapter, Three Rivers Alfisti, has been proudly participating heavily in the PVGP event for many years. While our convention is a distinct event, with activities open to AROC members only, the Car Show and Concours weekend will take place within the PVGP setting, which also includes spectating the historic races that take place on that weekend.

Furthermore, Alfa Romeo has been named as one of two featured marques of this year’s PVGP, and therefore AROC convention attendees may register for overlapping activities. All PVGP historic Alfa Romeo racers, AROC members or not, will be staying at the convention hotel.

The following morning, I got into the Spider for the drive back to northern NJ. This time however, hoping to avoid another unpredicted snow storm, I opted for the reliable, albeit boring, interstate highways. The interstates have these wonderful easy-to-read and up-to-the-minute informative electronic boards. As I drove these kept displaying a warning for “POSSIBLE EXTREME WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS”… Thankfully those conditions never materialized, and I was able to think about my Pittsburgh visit and enjoy the notion that we are going to have a great convention!

By Enrique Zuniga

The hotel for the 2019 National Convention is The DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh – Cranberry. The negotiated rate is $119 per night. We cannot emphasize how important it is to book your hotel room early.

The Three Rivers Alfisti convention organizers have arranged for the entire hotel to be Alfa Romeo. All AROC convention attendees, as well as any and all Alfa Romeo vintage racers, and any Alfa VIPs attending activities related to historic racing will be staying at this hotel. All hotel parking lots will be for Alfas. (RVs and trailers are welcome, but please contact the convention in advance.)

It is paramount to realize that the all Alfa hotel is predicated on early bookings. All hotels only make money when their rooms are full, and they will not risk not having their rooms sold out. Hence, they monitor bookings months in advance.

If for whatever reason attendees are not reserving rooms, the hotel will simply market our projected-but- unreserved rooms to other groups or individuals. If an attendee waits too long and cannot book a negotiated-rate reservation, it hurts in two ways:

1. The attendee will have to pay a higher, non-negotiated, rate at the convention hotel or at an alternate hotel, and
   
2. The convention doesn’t get hotel credit for filling the higher-rate room. Hotel credits are important because the hotel provides meeting rooms at a discount and free guest room amenities based on the number of nights that are filled.
   

Make reservations via this link on the Convention website or directly with Hotel
DoubleTree by Hilton
910 Sheraton Drive
Mars, PA 16046
Tel: 1-724-776-6900
Please mention that the group discount is under "Cortile Della Corsa"

Last June we announced that Dwight Knowlton was selected as our logo artist for the upcoming Cortile della Corsa AROC convention in 2019.  We are excited to release the final logo design !

We are now working on the new gear that will be available for pre-purchase prior to the convention.  We whould be making those announcements next, so watch this space!

See Dwight Knowlton Selected as Logo Artist for the Cortile della Corsa
for more information.

Kelly Telfer has been been selected at the featured artist to create the Cortile della Corsa poster for the 2019 Alfa Romeo Owner's Club Convention and the Spotlight Car for the 2019 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix.

, aKelly designed and printed their race team shirts and soon, everybody else wanted him to design their shirts!  He started a T-shirt company, O.Tee Shirts, when he was 20 years old- based on his original art and new-found race contacts.

It turned into one of the largest T-shirt companies specializing in motorsports in the country. Over the next couple of decades, Kelly created art and apparel for many top racers, tracks, and manufacturers; including Mears, Andretti, Petty, Earnhardt, Senna, Mansell, the Daytona 500, Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey Historics, Long Beach Grand Prix, Indy 500, Monaco F1, as well as Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, NASCAR, Indy Car and F1. 

Be sure and check out Kelly's website, Kelly Telfer's Fine Art, and learn about his Ambush Art.  We should be making an announcement regarding the poster art sometime in February or March.

Make plans now to join us in Allegheny West in Pittsburgh's Historic North Side.

Three Rivers Alfisti is excited to announce that Dwight Knowlton has been selected as the artist to develop the logo for the Cortile della Corsa AROC convention in July 2019. 

Dwight is the author of The Little Red Racing Car, a father son story about a Maserati race car car restoration as well as The Greatest Race ,which is the story of Sir Stirling Moss’s record setting 1955 win of Italy’s great race, the Mille Miglia, and his most recent book, The Small Silver Speedster, about a father and daughter who fly to New York City to pick up their new Porsche 356 Speedster from Max Hoffman’s iconic dealership.

When Alfa Romeo was founded in 1910, draughtsman Romano Cattaneo came up with the company’s logo based on a crest he saw in Milan above the door of Castello Sforzesco.

Being that the company was founded in Milan, a symbol representative of the city seemed appropriate. Designer Giuseppe Merosi helped turn the idea into Alfa Romeo’s official emblem.

Apart from some minor tweaks with the wording, gold trim, and wreath appearance over the years, the design has remained fairly consistent.

Where the biscione symbol itself comes from and what it means has been a subject of ongoing debate for over a century. Here are some leading theories:

• It refers to a local legend of a dragon which tormented the land in the fifth century and was slaughtered by Uberto, Squire of Angera.
• It’s the crest used by archbishop Ottone Visconti when leading crusaders into battle against Saracens (Syrians/Muslims) during the first crusade, a Biblical symbol of divine protection.
• It’s the crest on the shield of the nomadic Saracen knight Visconti defeated, which he took with him as proof of his victory.
• The serpent represents the House of Visconti’s itself, a symbol meant to seem intimidating to others.
• The serpent is orally giving birth to a human being, coming out a “new man, purified and renewed,” just as the creature itself is one of renewal through skin-shedding (according to Alfa Romeo representatives).
• It represents the snakes Lombards wore around their necks for good luck.

The biscione has undegone minor changes with the green snake becoming larger and smaller over time with slight changes to its' body thickness.  The human being consumes by the Viper has become less recognixable over time.

In January Bernard martin presented a proposal to the Alfa Romeo Owners Club Board of Directors that the Three Rivers Alfisti chapter of AROC would host the 2019 AROC Convention at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix's Cortile Italian Car Show where the TRA was founded in July 2017.

Our Club presented some rather unique ideas for the convention:

The Board voted unanimously to hold the convention in Pittsburgh. Our next step is to start to revise the initial planning in more detail.  The complete presentation is below and can also be found on our YouTube Channel.

TRA Members where able to experience luxury while helping parents and families in need this past holiday season.

The folks from Ron Lewis Alfa Romeo invited TRA members to Sienna on the Square on December 14 from 12:00-2:00pm to enjoy Italian cuisine, live music by Christina Chirumbolo, and test drive one the new Alfa Romeo Giulia's or Stelvio's.

For every test drive, Ron Lewis Alfa Romeo donated $20 to Christopher’s Kitchen.

Space is LIMITED.  You MUST RSVP to attend.  No Walk-ins are going to be permitted.  Please use the button button to make your reservation.