by John Manzi, for the NAADA

Monticello, NY — 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 28-29 at Dell’ippodromo Paolo Sesto di Taranto in the province of Puglia.

NAADA photo

Joe Faraldo will drive on July 28-29 in Italy.

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 of Majorca, Germany and many more countries, all of whom will converge at the five-eighths-mile track in Puglia, deep in the heel of the Italian peninsula.

“Besides travelling to represent the U.S., 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 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 U.S. 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.”