NUVOLARI ENDURO
4TH
BATTLE
OF THE G-JETS
On Saturday, May 3rd,
the fourth Nuvolari Battle of the G-Jets went down. This
annual event is a fund raiser for the Ethan Duda
Scholarship. It has also become both a wonderful racing and
social event, drawing some of the best racers from around
the country. This year we raised $1600 for Ethan’s
fund.
Thirty six drivers, hailing from Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode
Island, Maine, Illinois, and the Republic of Cambridge made
the journey to Nantasket Beach, Hull, MA. When the doors
opened at 8 am, the racers found an array of breakfast
treats awaiting them: fresh brewed coffee and donuts along
with homemade pumpkin bread, shortcake and cookies made by
Durf Hyson’s wife, Sue, filled the air with delicious
aromas.
The drivers received their official red polo shirts and
hats upon arrival. Red was definitely the theme color for
this year’s Enduro.
We used a different format for choosing teams this year. In
past years, most of the teams were pre-determined. This
year, six captains were chosen in advance and taken to a
secluded area. The captains drafted drivers from a master
list using a round robin format. The six teams emerged as
follows:
Tom
Gray
Rob Hayes
Tom Kanan
Dan
DeCosmo
Steve
Medanic
Mustard
John
O’Brien
Arnie
Hernandez
Nick Kanan
Harvey
Goodwin
Brian
Skidmore
Erik
Eckhardt
Jim
McCartney
Joe
Eastlack
Tom Tierney
Mike
Martyn
Durf
Hyson
Tom Bussman
T.J.
Mottola
John Pileggi
Al Perschilli
Rick
Hubbert
Dave
Muse
John Stezelecki
Jim
Hoar
Willy
Goodwin
Bob Ferrara
Bill
Craven
Pete
Barclay
Jim Tyma
Mark
Kaminsky
Paul
Ryer
Gerry Cullan
Rudy
Urban
Paul
Avis
Rich Audette
For more photos of the
race to www.infinitevideo.net/nuvolariweb/
Gary Beedle of BSRT, Redmond, WA, provided the Enduro with
six identically prepared 1970’s Porsche 917 G-Jets.
He also provided plenty of spare parts for each team.
Each team chose a driver to qualify for their team. The top
qualifying team would then be able to select the starting
lane of their choice. Dan DeCosmo drove a 5.221 top
qualifying lap for Team Gray, and they chose the red gutter
lane to start the race. At the finish of Heat 1, they would
move to gutter yellow. This allowed them to complete both
gutter lanes early in the race.
The previous Enduros were 6 hours long, but due to the
larger race field, this year’s race was increased to
8. The extra 2 hours gave each driver more individual race
time, and increased the “dark time” segment by
40 minutes. This year we also had a chance to test new LED
headlights in the cars. The race began with the lights
already installed in the cars; in previous years, we had to
pit to install them. As usual, each team would be required
to take one, two-minute mandatory pit stop per 80 minute
heat.
Rob Hayes has always brought in extremely talented
musicians to perform the National Anthem. This year would
prove to be no different. Rob introduced us to Peter
Bufano, accordionist and circus music provocateur. Peter
was sensational! He performed a great, deep rendition of
the Star Spangled Banner.
Heat One (The First
80 Minutes)
It took just a few minutes for the
drivers to rid themselves of any and all butterflies. At
the end of the first 80 minute heat there was a little
surprise! Team Gray, who had started on gutter red , found
themselves in the lead by nine laps over Team Pileggi.
Red
Blue
Orange
Green
White
Yellow
Gray
Pileggi
Kanan
Mottola
Hayes
Perschilli
723
714
698
690
678
664
Heat Two (Lead
Change)
Team Pileggi overtook Team Gray halfway
through the heat. Top qualifier Dan DeCosmo had to leave
for a family commitment. This resulted in Team Gray losing
one of its best drivers, as well as being one driver short.
With two heats completed, Teams Kanan and Gray were in a
2nd place deadlock with 1417 total laps each.
Orange
Green
Yellow
White
Red
Blue
Pileggi
Kanan
Gray
Mottola
Hayes
Perschilli
734/1448
719/1417
694/1417
707/1397
694/1372
703/1367
Heat Three (In the
Dark)
The lights were dimmed slowly over a 15
minute time frame until darkness loomed over the track
room. Approximately 20 minutes into the race, Red
Competition was called due to LED failure in some of the
cars. The race was delayed for about 10 minutes to allow
installation of grain of wheat bulbs in all the cars. When
racing resumed, Team Pileggi maintained its lead over Team
Kanan.
Green
White
Blue
Yellow
Red
Orange
Pileggi
Kanan
Gray
Hayes
Mottola
Perschilli
702/2150
687/2104
660/2077
693/2065
631/2028
646/2013
Heat Four (Flexing
The Muscle)
The driving action in the dark continued
with Team Pileggi flexing its muscle and grabbing a 73 lap
lead over their nearest rival, Team Kanan. Team Hayes moved
into the 3rd
position by knocking Team
Gray down to 4th
place. During the last 15
minutes of this heat, the lights were increased until full
daylight conditions were restored. A sigh of relief showed
on all the drivers’ faces, as racing resumed in
daylight. After four heats, Team Hayes held a single lap
lead over team Gray for 3rd place.
White
Red
Blue
Orange
Yellow
Green
Pileggi
Kanan
Hayes
Gray
Mottola
Perschilli
698/2848
691/2775
679/2744
666/2743
656/2684
636/2649
Heat Five
(Dominance)
Team Pileggi continued its dominance by
maintaining its 73 lap lead over its nearest rival, now
Team Hayes. Team Hayes had dislodged Team Kanan from their
2nd place position, sending them down into
3rd place. Team Gray continued to struggle
but managed to keep a strong hold on 4th position. Teams Mattola and Perschilli
were not able to advance.
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Yellow
Pileggi
Hayes
Kanan
Gray
Mottola
Perschilli
703/3551
734/3478
692/3467
699/3442
706/3390
719/3368
Heat Six (Victory)
Team Pileggi ended the race on gutter
yellow. They pulled off a magnificent victory by scoring a
total of 4269 laps. Team Hayes made a valiant charge at
1st by closing the gap to 40 laps, but
unfortunately, time ran out and they had to settle for a
second place finish. Team Hayes achieved the best heat lap
total of the day with 751 laps during this final frame.
Team Kanan raced very well, especially in the last heat.
They were able to keep their third place ranking and won a
plaque for their effort. Tom Gray’s team fought
valiantly, but they were never able to overcome the loss of
team member Dan DeCosmo. They settled for a fourth place
finish. Only 32 laps back was team Mottola, who drove well
enough to hold off team Pershcilli. Team Perschilli had
actually taken over the fifth place spot for a few minutes,
but eventually succumbed and finished in the sixth and
final position.
Yellow
Green
Blue
White
Orange
Red
Pileggi
Hayes
Kanan
Gray
Mottola
Perschilli
718/4269
751/4229
731/4198
698/4140
718/4108
643/4011
Congratulations go to Team Pileggi for a fine victory. And
to all the teams, for running a fine race for such a worthy
cause. Great race guys!
Special Thanks
A
successful event requires contributions from many people.
We give Gary Beedle of BSRT a very special thank you. Gary
built six great racecars and supplied the teams with plenty
of extra parts. Gary was scheduled to be at the race, but
unfortunately a last minute family commitment arose causing
him to forfeit both his airline ticket and his place in the
race. In spite of this last minute setback, Gary over
nighted the cars to ensure they’d arrive in time for
the race. BSRT also supplied all the plaques for the top
three teams as well as the top qualifier award. Once again,
thank you Gary.
Durf Hyson supplied us with tent pop ups and his wife Sue
made some wonderful cookies and breads. Thank you both very
much. Peter Bufano did a wonderful job with his accordion,
playing the Star Spangled Banner. We thank him for coming
to Hull and taking up his personal time to perform for us.
Another sponsor who has always come through for us is Frank
Klucevsek of Mid Cape Tire. This year he brought us some
great NASCAR hats to take home with us.
A special thank you goes to Steve Medanic of Siberia
Racing. Steve designed the LED’s used at the
beginning of the race. Although we ran into problems that
required us to switch to the backup grain of wheat bulbs,
Steve was later able to figure out what had caused the
initial problem. We are looking forward to using the LEDs
again in future Enduros. Thank you to Paul Avis of Avis
Studios who once again supplied us with professional
photographs of the event. He does a wonderful job capturing
all phases of the race, while participating in the race at
the same time. Great job, Paul!
Some drivers had signed up for the race and made their
donation but were unable to attend. They were Bruce
Beaulieu, Benny Leyro, Tony Mourkas, Andre Perra, John
Shortsleeves and Gary Beedle. Thanks for the donations
guys, but we really missed you!
The most important thank you goes to the drivers
themselves. Without them, the Nuvolari Enduro could not
exist. Thank you, guys!!
Invitation to the US
G-Jet Grand Prix!
The inaugural US G-Jet Grand Prix will be
held on November 7th and 8th,
2009 in Suffield, CT. This titanic, national G-Jet event
will be contested using Tomy Indy or F1 hard bodies, and
the new BSRT F1 front weights and front tire sets. More
information and the official race rules will be coming
soon. There will also two support races; choose between a
T-Jet Mini Indy race, or an IROC F1 race using the new BSRT
901 car. Once again, rules and details to come.
The plan is to move the Nuvolari track to Dan
DeCosmo’s new Taj MaHO garage facility. The U.S.
G-Jet Grand Prix will be held on the Nuvolari track, the
T-Jet Mini Indy race on the 21st Century Clubman, and the F1 IROC race on
the White Scorpion. Watch www.g-jetgrandprix.com
for details. Hope to see you
there!