by John Berry, for Pompano Park

Pompano Beach, FL — The Florida Amateur Driving Club is hosting a friendly — but highly competitive — event versus some of the top Italian amateur drivers in a four race series encompassing the weekend at Pompano Park.

The Florida Amateur Driving Club has donated almost $180,000 to worthwhile organizations on the strength of club members donating all driving fees to charity and that total is sure to go up this weekend as four races are scheduled in this competition — three on Saturday night and the finale on Sunday.

Participants from Italy include Ciro Ciccarelli, 32, a native of Naples with 166 lifetime wins; Antonio Simioli, 32, also from Naples and the author of 334 career wins; Luigi Farina, 50, from Maddaloni, with 202 wins; and Elena Villani, 29, a native of Pompei, who has 168 career wins.

While each of these Italian drivers will appear in the four contests, the Florida contingent will feature 16 amateur club members led by Leon Cable with 427 lifetime wins and Dein Spriggs with 426 career victories.

The Italian-American Amateur Driving Championship comes to South Florida after the first of the home-and-home matches — which the Italians won — was held last May at Pierre Luigi DeAngelo’s Angaro Track in Naples, Italy.

The event was organized by the Florida Amateur Driving Club’s Dein Spriggs and Joe Pennacchio, prompting the latter to remark, “We had an international competition here last year that proved to be very popular so we decided to see if we could expand on that success.

“At the conclusion of our visit to Italy, we took the initiative to invite the Italian contingent here and they gave us an enthusiastic ‘yes’ and we are so proud to have them here on our home turf, so to speak.”

Spriggs will handle the 8-5 morning line favorite A Crown For Lindy in the opening event. This 11-year-old warrior will be making his 200th career start and is the author of 52 lifetime wins while compiling more than $400,000 in career earnings.

The second division features Thekeptman, owned, trained and driven by Fred Cohen. This 11-year-old is the 6-5 morning line favorite with the $778,062 winner On The Tab second choice at 4-1. Luigi Farina will have the assignment back of On The Tab.

The final Saturday night division features the 44-time winner The Budster, 5-2 in the morning line, against Rush N Supreme, with 48 career wins, listed at 3-1. Steve Oldford will handle The Budster’s lines while Sky Walker will sit in the sulky back of Rush N Supreme. Third choice is Divination, a winner in her last start. Luigi Farina will be in the bike back of Divination, 7-2 on the early line.

The Saturday night festivities get underway at 7:20 p.m.