Wayne Carini, host of TV’s signature series “Chasing Classic Cars” on the Velocity for Discovery channel, has been named the StarFest 2012 Honorary Event Chairman.   Mr Carini will serve as Honorary Chief Judge of the Concours d’Elegance and will make a special award to “The car I’d most like to chase”.

Full biography of Wayne Carini:

With a lifetime of experience in automobile restoration under his belt, master car restorer, WAYNE CARINI has a resume that includes body and paint work on rare car collections owned by the likes of David Letterman, tennis great, Ivan Lendl and the DuPont family.  He’s been featured in The New York Times, as well as, numerous automobile magazines and starred in two one hour television specials.

Wayne’s passion for cars started as a child, working alongside his father on such classics as Duesenbergs, Lincolns, Packards and Ford Model A’s.  Then, at just nine years of age, he experienced a life altering event…  He went for a ride in his first Ferrari.  A 1960 rosso chiaro 250 SWB. Wayne was instantly bitten by the Ferrari bug and hooked for life.  Automobiles have been Wayne’s passion ever since.

After learning the art of Ferrari restoration from both his mentor Francois Sicard — a former Ferrari racing mechanic and widely considered to be the foremost Ferrari expert on the East Coast — and his good friend Luigi Chinetti Jr., whose father Luigi Chinetti Sr. won the 1949 24 hours of Le Mans race for Ferrari and opened the first Ferrari dealership in the country — Wayne went into business on his own. Since that time, Wayne has been the owner and operator of three companies in Portland, CT: F40 Motorsports, Continental Auto LTD, and Carini Carozzeria.

F40 Motorsports buys and sells vintage and classic automobiles.  Continental Auto Ltd. is a collision shop specializing in high end and exotic automobile repair.  Carini Carozzeria is the restoration shop where Wayne spends most of his time working on one of many restoration projects.  And while Wayne loves restoring cars to perfection, his personal preference is for un-restored, original cars.  Often shown in the elite “preservation class” at Concourses nationwide, these increasingly rare cars are the focus of Wayne’s private collection.

At home, Wayne is a dedicated father of two daughters and husband of twenty four years. The family resides in rural Connecticut, in a log home that Wayne built thirty-three years ago.  An avid supporter of Autism research organizations, Wayne helps organize and sponsor car events for the benefit of children and adults with Autism.  His incentive to find a cure or treatment is his youngest daughter, who was diagnosed with Autism at an early age.

Wayne is also involved in, and regularly attends many different car clubs and events to get young people involved in the car collector hobby. He believes that without young peoples’ involvement, the car collector tradition will disappear. His latest passion is encouraging families with special needs children to consider placing collector cars into a special needs trust with the hope that the cars will benefit the children in the future.

Prior to Chasing Classic Cars, Wayne appeared in two hour long television specials for Discovery’s HD Theater Channel. Monterey Week and The World’s Most Expensive Cars, which premiered in October 2008.