by Bernard Martin

We lost our dear friend Tom on September 6, 2024. Thomas J. Frasca was an influential figure not only in the automotive and motorsports world but also in his personal and professional life.

His passion for cars, particularly Ferraris, and his deep involvement with the North American Racing Team (NART) made him a highly respected member of the Ferrari community.

Tom was instrumental in founding the Scuderia Ferrari Club of America and served with NART from 1971 to 1994, working closely with Luigi Chinetti to promote Ferrari racing in North America.

Thomas J. Frasca was born on June 5, 1951, in Bronx, NY. He graduated from Alexander Hamilton High School in White Plains, NY, in 1970. Thomas continued his education at Westchester Community College, where he made history as the first registered respiratory therapist in New York State. In 1976, he met the love of his life, Geraldine Wilson, at White Plains Hospital, and they married on May 29 of that year. In 1980, the couple moved from Norwalk, CT, to Brewster, NY, where they proudly raised their family.

Tom had a distinguished career, initially serving as a Hospital Administrator at Greenwich Hospital. He later pursued his Master’s degree in business at Sacred Heart University and became a successful Real Estate Broker for Century 21 in Brewster.

Tom’s contributions to the Cortile and the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (PVGP) are unforgettable. He was one of our most distinguished Cortile Cup judges until his health issues arose.   Without his efforts, the 2023 Ferrari Marque of the Year celebration at the PVGP would not have been possible. He played a key role in securing the participation of Ferraris from Larry Auriana’s collection and was the catalyst for the involvement of Luigi Chinetti Jr., visiting the PVGP for the first time and returning each share to share hsi stories and anecdotes.  . Unfortunately, due to illness, Tom could not attend the event the 2023 event in  person, but his influence was felt throughout the celebration.

His love for Alfa Romeos was also well known, where his signature humor on Alfa forums—“The older I get... the faster I was”—brought smiles to many. As someone who lived with a vibrant passion for motorsports, Tom’s legacy extends beyond the cars he worked on; it lives in the community he helped build, the friendships he fostered, and the events he made possible.

Wayne Long, who was instrumental in bringing Tom to the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix posted his thoughts on Facebook "We love you and we will miss you! I hope you are getting up to speed with Mr. Chinetti in heaven as we speak. Rest in peace my dear friend!"

Personally, I will truly miss his calls to me in the afternoon, evening or weekends just to catch up on things.  Passing along anecdotes about cars and politics.  Our conversations sometimes went on for hours and I always left with a warm feeling in my heart to have met such and enjoyable human being. 

Though he passed away recently, his memory will continue to drive the spirit of the Cortile and the PVGP, reminding us all of the significant role he played in keeping the legacy of Ferrari and NART alive in the United States​.

by Bernard Martin

We are very pleased to announce that Kate Gundlach, who was recently named Grand Marshall for the 2021 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, will be joining us at the Cortile as a Cortile Cup  judge.  Kate will also be the keynote speaker at the Cortile during lunch. She will talk about growing up in motorsports in Pittsburgh and what she does now in her job as ​Performance Engineer at Arrow McLaren SP in the NTT IndyCar Series.

“I grew up with motorcycle racing,” Gundlach said. “I’ve been around it longer than I can remember. I fell in love with car racing, though, when I joined the University of Pittsburgh’s Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) team.

That love for racing sparked her to pursue a future in the sport.

​“I wanted to get into auto racing, but I didn’t know where to start,” she said. “My Dad knew Danny Yanda from his track time at BeaveRun.  He introduced me to Danny who gave me John Walko’s card, I took it straight back to my dorm room and gave him a call”.

“I had her start the next day,” said John Walko, of John Walko Racing, “We where in growth mode at that point. We where running three F2000 cars, two Formula Enterprise cars, a club program with Formula Continental and a Formula Ford and a two car Pro Mazda effort. It was a lot of balls in the air and she kept it running. People in motorsport are hard to find like that. It’s not a regular job. You are constantly working to a deadline.  It’s never, ‘We’re not going to make that race’. It takes a special person. Kate is all of that.”

“When I started there, I worked upstairs in the loft, with a cardboard box as a desk,” Gundlach recalls. “That was one of my earliest lessons about racing at the professional level; you have to be willing to start at the very bottom and do whatever needs doing. Over the course of my time with them I learned not only about racing, but also about working with a team, working with data systems, writing contracts, doing budgets, creating sponsor proposals and a dozen other things. I was definitely thrown into the deep end, and loved every minute of it.”

In 2009 Gundlach joined Star Mazda as Quality Control Engineer and in 2012 joined HMV Racing as the Data and Electronics Engineer for Simona De Silvestro.  That created a rare pairing of female driver and female engineer in Indy Car.

According to Bobby Rahal, “Kate was always a very sharp young lady.  We hired her at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for a few years and now we compete with her, but that’s always the case with racing”

In 2018, Gundlach, along with Danielle Shepherd, became the first women to win an Indycar Series championship from the engineering stand, working with Scott Dixon from Chip Ganassi Racing. 

​Now, entering her second year with Arrow McLaren SP as a Performance Engineer, Gundlach is continuing her success with driver Pato O’Ward.  She's completing against her old teammate Scott Dixon and Alex Palou both at Chip Ganassi Racing.  Pato and Alex are in close competition for the points leader in the Indycar series, with her former teammate from John Walko Racing, Graham Rahal, not too far behind.

Please give Kate a big welcome back to the 'burgh!

We are just over 30 days away from this summers Cortile Italian Car Show at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix!
We've got some great new things for you to enjoy this year!
Saturday & Sunday July 20-21, 2019

As you know, each year the Cortile selects a marque to highlight for our annual event.

The Macchina of Alfa Romeo have been selected as our 2019 Proiettore Macchina!

Joining us this summer is the Alfa Romeo Owners Club (AROC) who will be holding their North American Convention and honored also as the spotlight car of the 2019 running of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix.. 

The theme for the AROC convention is "Cortile della Corsa", the "Courtyard of Racing" and will feature Alfa Romeo's on the track as well as iconic racecars on the showfield. Be sure to check out the poster car that was raced by Fangio and Phil Hill. 

Deb Schurko came up with the idea of Wine Tasting on Turn 9 a few years ago and it's become the best place to watch the races on Sunday. Plenty of shade and some wine tasting, courtesy of Mazza Winery, after the opening ceremonies and parade! This year we're introducing something new, but first...

This year, we've had a slight price increase on weekend registration to $150.  After 10 years we've experienced a few cost increases and it was time to adjust up a bit to make sure we where keeping our contribution to the charity growing compared to the other marques down the hill from us.

But, in conjunction with Wine on 9 at the Westinghouse Pond on Sunday,we've also got a NEW sponsor in JKS Financial . As a company with more than 45 years of combined experience, JKS Financial prides themselves with the relationships they build with their clients and they want to build some charitable relationships with us!  This summer they are sponsoring and hosting the Sunday Catered Lunch at the Westinghouse Fountain. 

This year your weekend entry will get you lunch for two on both Saturday and Sunday!
We've also upgraded some of our goody bag stuff. This year we're including a collapsible umbrella (to keep you in the shade of course) and some beeswax lip balm so your lips aren't burned for the wine tasting!  And you will love this year's t-shirt! It features the poster art you see up above. 


Artist Kelly Telfer will be on hand to autograph the posters and even your shirt or hat. Oh! I forgot to mention the hat!  This year's is different from previous years.  You'll just have to wait and see that!

If you have not gone over to the judges tent at the previous years events and chatted with the judges you may just want to do that.

Did you know that Steve Barney was the first person outside of a direct Ferrari employee to ever get to own a Ferrari Grand Prix Car?  Ask Steve about Nikki Lauda's F1 Car that he owned thanks to his friend Enzo Ferrari.  Steve is also the founder of Foreign Cars Italia in the south and is pretty intimate with all Italian marques.

You may also want ask some questions of Tom Frasca.  Tom was Dipendenti Ferrari for the North American Racing Team, more commonly known at NART. Tom served as Luigi Chinetti's right hand man for 26 years until 1994 and was a witness to much of the history that has made Ferrari an iconic name today.

Stop by the judges tent at 2pm to ask them some questions!

Now, to do all that you've got to register! 

If you have not done so already, click the button below and register now for the Cortile Weekend.  (If you own an Alfa Romeo CLICK HERE instead).

Thank you very much for your continued support of our charities!
Bernie

Both Clubs will be starting from the Harrisburg area at 10:00 AM on Friday, July 14.  Ferrari's are free to show up Friday morning, or stay at a local hotel Thursday night to split up the drive!  The Ferrari Club will be stopping for lunch along the way, with an optional stop at the Flight 93 Memorial, ending at a hotel near Pittsburgh's Shenley Park, where everything will be happening.

Ferrari Club members can enjoy the Cortile and 16 other Car Shows and Pre-race practice laps on Saturday and Vintage Racing on Sunday!

The Cortile Cup judging will be on Saturday, giving us a chance to show our cars and maybe win the Pietro Castiglioni Cortile Cup for the best Ferrari!  

Sunday is race day and  Ferrari Club members will be at the Cortile VIP area race side at Turn 9, the Westinghouse Pond, for a private wine tasting.

Wayne Long, Chief Judge and Founder of the Cortile Cup has announced that he has selected a new Judge for the 2017 Cortile Cup Competition.  Tom Bungay will be joining the judging team for the 2017 annual event at the Pittsburgh Golf Club on Saturday July15. 

Tom has been involved with the collector car business for over 40 years.  From racing in the early Monterey Historics, to judging at many West Coast events, Tom has been active in all facets of the hobby.  

Tom is currently an active participant in Historic racing, driving in events from COTA to Lime Rock.  In addition, he owns and operates a Legacy Motorcoars, a vintage car dealership in Jacksonville, Florida specializing in 50’s and 60’s European sports cars.

A native of Sacramento, California, Tom has been part of the collector car business for over 40 years. Starting with a restoration shop in Sacramento in the late 70’s, Tom moved south to Santa Barbara working with the sales and restoration of Lotus automobiles. This association with Lotus also led to participation in the Monterey Historics for several years. The Monterey Historics, ta premier vintage racing event in the United States, is held yearly at Laguna Seca Raceway in California.

In addition to historic racing, Tom has been active in SCCA road racing since 1970, with a few professional outings, including the Can-Am series in 1981 and Pro Sports 2000. Tom also established Bungay Automobile Appraisals over 25 years ago, a very active company in the collector car market.

Legacy Motorcars, LLC. ​was founded by Tom Bungay, a professional in the collector car business with over 35 years of experience.  At Legacy Motorcars they are experts at finding that special collector car that you’ve always dreamed of – and they may even have it in stock!

Their experience in the collector car market will lead to selecting the finest and most suitable vehicle that meets your needs.

Legacy Motorcars also has a pre-owned buyers service, to help you find the exact contemporary vehicle that you want and need, whether it is a slightly used Ferrari or an inexpensive car for your college-bound son or daughter. 

At the 2017 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance tom's 1961 Maserati 3500GT Vignale Spyder was the winner of “BEST OWNER RESTORED” Trophy. 

​Alfa Romeo was founded as A.L.F.A. "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili"  which stands for "Anonymous Lombard Automobile Factory" on June 24, 1910. In August 1915, the company came under the direction of Neapolitan entrepreneur Nicola Romeo and in 1920, the name of the company was offically changed to Alfa Romeo.

Alfa Romeo has competed successfully in Grand Prix motor racing, Formula One, sportscar racing, touring car racing, and rallies over it's illustrious history. It has competed both as a constructor and an engine supplier, usually under the name Alfa Corse or Autodelta, and private entries.

​The first racing car was made in 1913, three years after the foundation of the company, and Alfa Romeo won the inaugural world championship for Grand Prix cars in 1925.

​The company became a legendary icon in motorsports when Enzo Ferrari founded the Scuderia Ferrari racing team in 1929 under the Alfa Romeo racing team, before becoming independent in 1939. Alfa Romeo holds the world's title of the most wins of any marque in the world.

In 1961 Alfa Romeo started importing cars to the United States and was became a bit of a household name as a result of it's starring role in the move The Graduate. In 1995, Alfa Romeo took a hiatus from the United States market until it was officially confirmed on May 5, 2006 by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne they new Alfa Romeo's would once again be sold in the US. North American sales resumed in October 2008, with the launch of the low production 8C Competizione coupe. The next biggest significant milestones in Alfa Romeo's North American return occurred in 2014, with the launch of the more affordable two-seater 4C coupe and most recently the Giulia’s launch quickly followed by the Stelvio SUV.  We hope to have several Guilia's on the show field for viewing this summer.

The 2016 Cortile Italian Car show was quite an event.  

We started things off with a special presentation by Jeff Mahl on Friday evening  about he 1908 New York to Paris Race.  It was a lively and very informed presentation about Jeff's great great grandfather's experience racing around the world over 100 years ago.

On Saturday we had several very special cars show up for the De Tomaso feature as well as a Stanguellini race car!

Take a look at some of the live footage below that we posted on our Facebook Page during the weekend activities for more details.

THE 2016 CORTILE CUP WINNERS CIRCLE

In the Best Italian Speciality Car category that Stanguellini race car took top honors. Our Proiettore Macchina feature winner was a gorgeous white Pantera.  

​The Ferrari and Lamborghini winners added the iconic Italian sports car colors to the Winners Circle and a very very unique Maserati joined us from Erie, PA to take the final spot in the Winners Circle!

THE 1908 NEW YORK TO PARIS RACE. 

Jeff is the Great Grandson of George Schuster, driver of the American Thomas Flyer and winner of the 1908 New York to Paris Race. 

​For his victory, George was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame beside other racing greats including Andretti, Bugatti, Ferrari, and Shelby.

1959 STANGUELLINI MONOPOSTO JOINED US IN 2016!

This car was partially restored in 1970s and spent approximately 20 years in a private museum of an Italian car collector in Miami, Florida.

The current owner purchased the car in 1994 and has spent the last 8 years restoring it to the original racing condition. This was it's first showing since coming out of the garage! ​

NEXT MONTH: ROB STRAW'S NIGHT PHOTO'S!

Make plans now to join us next summer at the Cortile when we will feature Alfa Romeo as our 2017 Proiettore Macchina! 

On Friday evening July 15, you to arrive at the Clubhouse starting at 6pm and enjoy a preview of the Cortile Car show and meet some of the other car owners and sponsors on a one-on-one basis.  The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix has many sites and sounds to absorb on Saturday and Sunday and our Preview Party gives you the opportunity to chat with other car owners and have some technical discussions about your cars.  Cortile Participants in the Preview Show will receive all of the materials they require for entry into the show grounds for the weekend on Friday evening.  

This event is also open to all Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix car show participants, the only requirement is that you must have a car registered at one of the weekend car shows. Space is limited, Pre-registration is a must. No drive up registration permitted. $45/person.

Jeff is the Great Grandson of George Schuster, driver of the American Thomas Flyer and winner of the 1908 New York to Paris Race.  For his victory, George was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame beside other racing greats including Andretti, Bugatti, Ferrari, and Shelby.
 ​

Jeff will also be joining us on Saturday for more about the 1908 New York to Paris Race.  You can learn more about that HERE