Just 20 days remain until a lucky supporter of the International Motor Racing Research Center wins a Fiat 500 Abarth Hatchback Turbo and a trip to Italy - a "primo" prize combination for the Center's annual fund-raising project.
The drawing of the winning ticket will be on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 1 p.m. at the Center. Anthony J. Specchio, Sr., grand marshal of the 2014 Italian-American Festival in Watkins Glen, will draw the winning ticket.
Tickets are $40 for one or $100 for three. Only 3,500 tickets will be sold.
The annual car raffle is the Racing Research Center's major fund-raiser to fund the Center's work preserving and sharing the history of motorsports.
Support through the Center's Sponsorship Team campaign is the other key source of funding.
The Center is a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization, so purchase of tickets is a tax-deductible donation.
A ticket order form is posted on the Center's website at www.racingarchives.org. Tickets may be purchased by mailing in the form; calling the Center at (607) 535-9044; or by sending the necessary information to rese...@racingarchives.org.
Reviewers of the Fiat 500 Abarth are quick to revive the "small but wicked" description coined in the 1960s for Karl "Carlo" Abarth's cars.
These cars are fun, too.
"The Fiat 500 Abarth is a blast. Fun to drive, fun to listen to, fun to look at, and fun to experience," wrote Jamie Doyle for Sports Car Digest. Read his enthusiastic driving report here.
Says the company: "The Fiat 500 Abarth brings to life the legendary racing heritage of the brand and becomes the Italian high-performance car for everyday driving."
With its origins part of automotive and motorsports history, the Fiat 500 Abarth is an especially appropriate choice as a Racing Research Center raffle car.
The collaboration between Abarth and Fiat started in the early 1950s. The driving public loved the Fiat 500, first released in 1958. Abarth's tuning and exhaust system redesigns would take the 500 to many class and outright race victories.
The Fiat 500 was "the car that would cement Abarth and Fiat's name into automobile history," Doyle wrote. The Abarth brand was re-launched in 2007, and the Fiat 500 Abarth arrived in the U.S. in 2012.
Fiats are once again earning checkered flags on tracks around the world, and perhaps the raffle winner will see some of those racing Abarths on his or her tour of Italy - the other half of this year's prize package.
BTI The Travel Consultants, a first-class travel agency in Syracuse, NY, will custom-design a $5,000 trip to Italy for the winner. BTI will create "the Italian vacation of your dreams" for the lucky winner.
As we're saying at the Center these days: "Tutte le strade conducono
a Roma ... in un Fiat!" (All roads lead to Rome ... in a Fiat!)
Please contact us with any questions about this "primo" package.
"Grazie!"
"preserving and sharing the history of motorsports"
