Triarsi – A Lifetime of Ferrari Passion
by Eddie LePine. Photos by Jack Webster
“If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Enzo Ferrari
To anyone who follows motorsports, of any type, the name Ferrari has special meaning. More than just a car brand, the name Ferrari evokes passionate feelings and visions of quality, speed, success, history and family.
That is certainly the case for the Triarsi family in Orlando, FL, my hometown. From humble beginnings in Elizabeth, NJ in 1965, Italian immigrant Onofrio Triarsi, Sr. founded Classic Coach Repair. He later became the authorized Ferrari coachwork repair center, and then opened Ferrari dealerships in Orlando and Tampa Bay. Triarsi Automotive is now one of the largest and best Ferrari dealerships in the US, if not in the world. Winner of the prestigious Cavallino Award from Ferrari for three straight years, the company’s current CEO is Onofrio Triarsi, Jr., who has taken the reigns of the family business from his father to continue their legacy of success, customer service and of course, motorsports.
A Ferrari Purosangue at the Triarsi dealer in Orlando, FL
Not only is Onofrio Triarsi, Jr. the CEO of Triarsi Automotive, he is Team Principal and driver for Triarsi Motorsports in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship Series, where the team races in the GTD class with a pair of Ferrari 296 GT3 cars. He also oversees the company’s Corsa Pilota program for their Ferrari owners and guests, offering everything from a Sport Driving program, to an Advanced course, to the Evoluzione+ experience and finally the Challenge Course.
In addition to the Ferrari dealerships, Triarsi preps and fields cars in the Ferrari Challenge, runs their IMSA GTD program and oversees a large vintage Ferrari restoration shop as well.
Keeping so many balls juggling in the air as Onofrio does is certainly not an easy task, but he makes it appear so. Between his obligations at the dealerships, the race shop, the restoration business and dealing with drivers, sponsors and customers alike – plus driving the race car himself – he exudes an easy-going confidence that is infectious to the ones around him. Perhaps that is the real key to the success of the entire business – being the calm in the middle of the storm.
Just as motorsports has always been in Ferrari’s blood, it courses through the veins of the Triarsi family as well. Onofrio, Jr. is a two-time Ferrari Challenge Champion and has now stepped up to professional competition in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship.
Just this past week, Onofrio Triarsi, Jr. teamed with regular IMSA pilot Kenton Koch to score the team’s first GTD Class win at Road America. The first of what will likely be many wins to come.
As Onofrio said at Road America about the company’s racing ambitions, “Once things were established, we wanted to focus again on growing the Ferrari Challenge from a customer base standpoint because we believe in keeping them in the ecosystem. You know, if they (our customers) want to go racing, we can handle that. Anything they want to do from new to used cars, we can handle that. And anything from restorations to racing, we can handle that. We want to keep the customer with us.”
At Road America, he was most impressive. He qualified the team’s Ferrari 296 GT3 himself in 3rd place on the grid, started the race, survived numerous on track incidents that befell many of his competitors and then handed the car over to his co-driver, Kenton Koch, in 2nd place. With 6 minutes to go in the race, Kenton passed a Corvette for the lead and the rest was history. Triarsi Competizione had scored their first IMSA victory.
The victory celebration was very special indeed, as father and son shared the podium together – a tribute to family, their lives well lived and looking forward to a future of more success to come.
Until then, see you at the races.
