August 18th - 21st

Recap of Mas Days 2005 Events

Thursday night’s Meet & Mix Event: The Club’s first official get together in Monterey took place on Thursday night (August 18th) at the Bocce Ball Courts located next to the Custom House Plaza 20 in downtown Monterey. The function started at 7:00 PM and continued until around 10:00 PM. Unfortunately, a Monterey Park official responsible for the Park Grounds shut us down right at 10:00 PM - just when things were starting to get fun. However, this was probably a good thing, as most of us had to get up rather early Friday morning to insure we beat the traffic jam into Concorso. The group of approximately sixty people had a wonderful time visiting with old friends, meeting new acquaintances, enjoying hors d’oeuvres, or drinking their favorite beverage. Last but not least, we watched as several members of the group were cornered by Don Treadwell to play a fiercely competitive game or two of Bocce Ball. Don, for those of us that chose to be spectators that evening rather than Bocce Ball participants, several of us are still wondering which team won? However, it did appear that everyone playing that night was having a grand time. Thanks to those who attended and for making it such a wonderful evening!

Special thanks to Don Treadwell for organizing the event and to those of you that stayed to help with the post-party clean up!

Friday at Concorso Italiano: The good news was traffic was relatively light into Concorso Friday morning as long as you got an early start (through the gate before 9:00 AM). Also, the weather stayed cool for most the morning, which made it an excellent day to walk the grounds, view the beautiful Italian cars, and of course take lots of pictures.

This year’s featured marque at Concorso Italiano was Alfa Romeo as well as the 40 Anniversary of the Lamborghini Miura. Also celebrated this year, the Ferrari Superamerica, the Ferrari F430, and the Maserati Gran Sport. Other features at this year’s Concorso event included the Kruse Select Auction, Cavallino Classic at Concorso Italiano, and a Runway Fashion Show and Opera performance. Concorso was a great event this year – just ask anyone who attended (if you weren’t lucky enough to be there in person).

With respect to our beloved marque, almost 70 Maserati cars were on display. By 9:00 AM Friday morning, the majority of the Masers were parked and positioned. Earlier that morning, we were asked by Concorso officials to select six cars within the Maserati corral to drive through the grandstand area to represent the marque and provide a few words about the specifics of their car to general audience. Below is the list of the Maserati cars and their owners that were selected for the drive-by presentation:

Mr. Angelo Ferro - 1954 A6G 2000 Zagato
Mr. Leonard Bernstein - 1971 Ghibli
Mr. Eugene O’Gorman - 1962 3500 GTI/Sebring
Mr. Douglas Magnon - 1968 Mistral
Mr. Andrew Govan Smith - 1967 Mexico
Mr. Don Treadwell - 1977 Merak

Thanks again to the car owners above for taking time during Concorso to display their cars and share a few words about their cars to the Concorso audience.

It was now time to start the formal judging process for Maserati Club International’s annual award process. Since this judging process was a Maserati Club International event, only club member’s cars were eligible to participate. It was predetermined by senior judging officials that it would be best to break the cars down into six basic categories based on the number of Maserati’s that were registered to attend this year’s Concorso Italiano event. 1st Place Winners and 1st Runner Ups within each category would be presented an official certificate at Saturday night’s Maserati Club International Awards Banquet Dinner. Following the Awards Banquet Dinner event each 1st Place Winner and 1st Runner Up would be sent courtesy of Maserati Club International a fantastic customized granite trophy with the owner’s name and car image engraved on wonderful, personalized trophies.

Special thanks needs to be given to our Maserati Club International, California Director, Mr. Donald Buresh. Donald spent an enormous amount of time and effort - researching, sourcing, and getting the right people together to make these amazing trophies become a reality. Thanks for all your help Donald!

1. Inline Six
2. Early V-8
3. Late V-8
4. V-6 Merak and QP III
5. Biturbo Era
6. Modern Era V-8 Coupe and Spyder

The Ladies Choice Award was an additional category included at the Concorso event but none of the judges below were involved in this process other than to verify the vote count.

The Maserati Club International judging team consisted of the following individuals. Senior judges included Colin Craig, Carl Canales, Larry Ruben, Russell Duncanson, and Jan Muizelaar. Apprentice judges included Donald Buresh, Mark McLean, and Mike Latsis. In the future, if you are interested in being a judge at Concorso Italiano - please contact Colin Craig or Mike Latsis.

Cars at Concorso were judged on their correctness according to original factory specifications and the overall shape and preparedness of the car for the event. The judging process lasted about 2-1/2 hours.

The spreadsheet below contains 1st Place Winners and 1st Runner - Ups for each of the categories judged. Congratulations to all 1st Place Winners and 1st Runner – Ups.

Immediately following the Concorso Italiano event, Maserati Club International hosted a post Concorso Italiano tailgate party on the fairway directly in front of the MCI booth. Approximately 40 members showed up for beverages, crackers and cheese that, was enjoyed by all who attended. Lots of fun and conversation was shared that evening as to what was interesting and what was the highlight of the day specific to each club member.

Dinner Friday night was an open format. However, Doug Mangon from The Maserati Club had a scheduled dinner function that night at Tarpy’s RoadHouse in Monterey. Doug extended an invitation to members of Maserati Club International to join them for dinner Friday night at Tarpy’s RoadHouse in Monterey. Colin Craig, Archie Morgan and Mike Latsis attended this dinner event on behalf of Maserati Club International dinner. It was a great time, a splendid dinner and much fun. It’s nice to see such positive interaction between the clubs at dinner and during the week’s events. Special thanks to Doug Magnon for his gracious invitation and for being such a wonderful host Friday night!

Saturday Event’s: Maserati Club International sponsored three events on Saturday.

• Laguna Seca Historic Raceway: We teamed up with the Pantera Club to enjoy a BBQ lunch plus members that participated in this event were provided secure private parking right near the entrance gate area. One Maserati Club International member summed up their day at the track very accordingly, “you could not have asked for a better day to be at Lunga Seca Raceway. Great cars, great races, great BBQ and spectacular weather”!

• Rally/Poker Run: Don Treadwell / Maserati Club International and Roland Au / Lamborghini Club organized a fantastic time with a Rally/Poker event on Saturday. The run included a nice drive along the coast. We then doubled back into Monterey and headed inland towards the wine country to have lunch at Baja Cantina along with the Lamborghini & Ferrari clubs. During our road trip, we were required to stop by local shops & merchants (to help support the local economy) and pick up a special sealed envelope, which contained a playing card. We were told at the start, not open any of our envelopes until lunch or your card hand would become invalid. Once we reached the Baja Cantina, we presented our sealed envelopes to the Rally/Poker Run Officials, who then opened our envelopes to determine who had winning or loosing card hands. Unfortunately, I’m not much of a poker player and that day proved to be no different. Beverly Witham, was the Rally/Poker Run winner as she produced the best a card hand of day with 5 - 10’s. (Rumor has it, that after Saturday’s Poker Run, Bev caught the first available plane out of town in hopes she could duplicate her efforts at one of the big pay off tables in Vegas). Mark McLean generated the second best card hand of the day with his “Full House” and Cathy Voights won third place with a “Flush”. Last, Sean Sohaei is the proud owner of 4 new tires compliments of Bridgestone Tires. Sean won these tires through a silent auction event, which took place during lunch.

• Maserati Club International Awards Dinner Banquet: Once again, we hosted our annual Awards Banquet Dinner at the Marriott Hotel in Monterey. Due to the Saturday night’s car auction taking place downtown next to the Marriott, as is the case anywhere in Monterey this particular weekend, so traffic flow to our event was somewhat of a challenge for some of our members/guests. Sorry for the inconvenience.

That evening we had 58 people join us for wine, dinner and celebration of the week’s events. The view and sunset Saturday night was stunning so was the event! We were also extremely privileged to have a special guest from Italy join us Saturday evening, Mr. Claudio Berro. Mr. Berro is Director of Racing for Maserati worldwide. Mr. Berro shared several interesting things with the group that evening either during his one on one session’s prior to his dinner speech, during his dinner presentation, or while fielding questions from members during the Q & A session. Listed below are some of the highlights that Mr. Berro shared with us that evening:

• Maserati hopes to implement a racing program in the United States with the Maserati Trofeo car, similar to what has been established in Europe. Tentative plans for the U.S. program would be to develop a program consisting of 26 cars plus 4 replacements. The cars could be leased or purchased for an entire racing season from Maserati. The Trofeo customer cars would include a certified Maserati mechanic and all the parts needed to support the car through the entire racing season. Under the structure of this program, all Trofeo racing cars would be held to the same exact standards – no variances. Also, the cars would cars would only be racing against other Trofeo racing cars – they would not be competing against other marques. The hope is to have the program up and running in the United States by the 2006/2007 Season.
• Mr. Berro also provided the group with an update specific to the MC-12 racing program. He stated, that Maserati is committed to this racing program and he foresees the MC-12 as being a top contender in the GT class within the very near future. One the questions that came up for Mr. Berro, was why is the footprint (width) of the MC-12 racer two or three inches in excess of the specification requirements. Mr. Berro chuckled and stated that depends on which specification you are reviewing. However, he assured the group that the MC-12 would be ready to run and compete in position ranking races in the states by next season.
• Another question that came up that evening was in reference to what the future looked like as far as sharing of technologies between Ferrari and Maserati now that Ferrari no longer has direct ownership of Maserati. Mr. Berro stated that some technologies and information maybe shared between the companies but most likely Ferrari, Maserati, and Alfa; will all operate separately or as individual companies in the future. Mr. Berro added, that all automobiles produced under the Fiat group would continue to be unique and distinctive marques.
• Last, Mr. Berro shared with us how the name MC-12 was designated for this car. MC-12 started out as a code name. “M” for Maserati, “C” for concept car, and the designation of 12 because of the 12 - cylinder engine. So during the development phase of the car - this is the name the design team and Maserati management utilized when referencing this car. Once the design aspect was complete, Maserati evaluated several alternative names for the car but after reviewing these options, the Maserati design team and management believed the name “MC-12” was the most appropriate name for this new incredible racing machine.

For those of you that attended the various Maserati Club International sponsored events during the week in Monterey, it was wonderful spending time and visiting with each of you again. For those of you that could not make it this year, we hope to see you next year!

Ciao,
Mike Latsis
Maserati Club International

2005 Photographs