The largest Automobile Club of Abruzzo (with over 9,300 members) is also the oldest. Until August, events for the 100 years with the re-enactment of the Circuito del Castello (25 May)
TERAMO – It’s like a film that rewinds after telling us about experiences, anecdotes, successes, challenges, races and a cross-section of our society, the centenary history that the Teramo Automobile Club is preparing to celebrate between May and July. An achievement imbued with wealth linked to the development of the internal combustion engine, yes, but also of the economy and society of Teramo, which in Abruzzo pioneered the new associative model linked to cars.
It was born on 15 May 1924 as the Abruzzo section of the Aci (as it became the Royal Automobile Club of Italy in 1926) and over the years it has written pages of motoring history not only in Abruzzo. A history made of presidents (among others Spinozzi, the first, Domenico Savini, Berardo Cerulli Irelli, Tullio Sorgi, for 44 years at the top, the current Cellinese and the predecessor Di Gialluca), of pilots (the Marquis De Sterlich Aliprandi. Spinozzi, Trifoni, and after the war Berardo Taraschi, Patriarca father and son, Pirocchi, Arena, Bosco, Romita, Dedo De Dominicis, Di Giuseppe, Gramenzi, the world champion Tarquini and Ponzio), of circuits (of Castellammare Adriatico, with the Coppa Acerbo which also saw Ferrari triumph, and del Castello) and rallies.
Aci Teramo, which for decades has been the cradle and cult of motorsport, has over the years increasingly taken hold in the social fabric of reference for cars and what they represent. Starting from road safety, from opinions in urban traffic plans, in road safety education especially at school, in the management of petrol stations and car parks. Today, the ACI of Teramo, chaired by Carmine Cellinese, is a reality made up of 9,371 (the largest number in Abruzzo), managed through 16 provincial delegations which carry out an average of 120 thousand service operations, which every year trains students in road safety education courses ( over 800 in 2024).
‘How to communicate road safety and sustainable mobility’ will be the next event in the centenary celebrations: organized in collaboration with UniTe and the Order of Journalists, the accredited conference, on 16 May, will bring together technicians in the thesis room of the faculty of Communication Sciences. A ‘Centennial elegance contest’ parade in Roseto, on May 24th, will anticipate the re-enactment of the Castle circuit, so dear to Teramo that it hosted 11 editions between ’49 and ’61 of the last century: on May 25th the cars vintage buildings will enliven the city centre.
The now traditional blessing of military and civilian vehicles at the Madonna delle Grazie (1st July) and the presentation of the volume ‘Sports motoring in Teramo 1924-2024’ on Marco Gramenzi (19th July at the Kursaal in Giulianova) will prelude the final conference in program on August 17th in Pineto in homage to Corradino D’Ascanio from Abruzzo, inventor of the Vespa.
