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| Joe Faraldo represents the USA in Italy |
Joe Faraldo, the president of the North American
Amateur Drivers Association, is making arrangements to travel to Italy to
represent the USA and compete in an international amateur driving
competition on July 28 and July 29 at Dell’ippodromo Paolo Sesto di Taranto in
the province of Puglia.
The events in Italy will be held at Italy’s southern
most city, Taranto and the competition will see the likes of representatives
from Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Spain’s island paradise Majorca ,
Germany and many more countries all of whom will converge at the 5/8ths mile
track in Puglia deep in the heel of the Italian peninsula.
“Besides travelling to represent the US I hope to
convince the amateurs from Taranto to come to America so we can show them
our hospitality,” Faraldo said.”It is indeed about time we host them after
years of their accommodating us.”
The invitation to this annual driving competition
initially came from a meeting Faraldo had with Donato Carelli 27 years ago when
Carelli was the owner of the track Dell’ippodromo Paolo Sesto di Taranto.
“Mr. Carelli had been the driving force behind the
international events staged every year. He (Carelli) got into a serious car
accident and suffered a fractured sternum which, among other injuries, caused
his death earlier this spring,” Faraldo related. “He was a wonderful man,
deeply devoted to his family which came to include many, many people in the
harness racing community”. “ Mr. Carelli’s kindness to the Americans included having US reps Kelly Rucker, Steve Oldford or myself over for the yearly Magna Greca, an annual International Amateur Competition at his racetrack. He accommodated every need of his international guests from hotel rooms, bus tours, fabulous dinners and exciting races. To those he added events on track including horse drawn carriage parades, interviews with TV personalities, antique car exhibitions and more. In his memory his family has picked up the event as part of Carelli’s legacy. That is a testament to the man as well as his family”.
