INDEPENDENCE DAY.
The first car races started in Zandvoort in the 1930s, on a street circuit, meander ing through the dunes. Mayor Henri van Alphen, the city’s top official at the time, looked at motorsports as a way to revive the ailing fortunes of the once glamorous 19th century seaside resort. His dream would bear fruits in 1948, when on the 7th of August Prince Bira of Siam won the inaugural race. In the 1950s, the track made its way into the then even more select roster of Formula 1 venues, before a string of deadly accidents forced it off the calendar of the world’s top motorsport series, with Niki Lauda winning the last race, held in 1985. Zandvoort limped on for 36 long years and there was little to suggest it would ever become anything other than a shadow of its former self, but then, in 2019, it got an unexpected break. An orange wave initiated by the impact of a local hero Max Verstapen proved the catalyst for Zandvoort’s return to F1, with the first four races being won by the favourite of the Oranje Legioen. On the 29th and the 30th of June this year the track ditched its trademark or ange to welcome one of the world’s largest gatherings of Alfa Romeo enthusiasts. The invasion of the reds was treated with the legendary courteous Dutch attitude as Zandvoort welcomed 6,000 people and 1,600 cars that gathered for a weekend of racing, celebrations and the characteris tic tire kicking. The event is organised by Stichting Club van Alfa Romeo Bezitters (SCARB), a 2,600-members independent organisation, established in 1978. Just three years after its founding, the club or ganised its first track days at Zandvoort, but the inaugural edition in its current format was in 1998, in the home of the TT, at Assen. That year, some 800 Alfas and 2,000 people showed up at the Spettacolo Sportivo. And it never looked back ever since. In 2003, the event marked the 25th anniversary of the club’s founding by moving to Zandvoort, where it stayed ever since.
