THE NUVOLARI2 G-JET ENDURO
“SECOND BATTLE OF THE G-JETS”


The Nuvolari2 GJet Enduro, the second “battle of the GJets,” was held on April 28, 2007 at the Nantasket Beach Raceway, in Hull, MA. The race, run on the six-lane 75’ Nuvolari Super Speedway, raised funds for the Ethan Duda Scholarship. The six hour contest included four hours of daylight racing and two hours of “nighttime” running, during which drivers would see the track only by the light of the racecars’ headlights.

Eight states (and several personality types) were represented among the competitors: Washington, Oregon, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The doors opened at a bleary 7 am. Race co-director John Stezelecki had the interior lights on low for the first half hour of practice in order to give the drivers a small taste of driving in the dark. The drivers used their own GJets for the practice session.

Shortly after practice had begun, the drivers received the news that race co-director Rob (Catfish Sr.) Hayes would have to miss the event due to a serious situation involving the police and the press, at his job. This was a major blow to the MA team assembled to defend the honor of the Bay State. Rob had also recruited Gary Beedle (WA), Andre Perra (OR) and Steve Medanic (IL), who were all staying at Chez Catfish for the weekend, and now he’d miss the race! Dan DeCosmo and Gary Beedle pitched in to take up the slack, and did an admirable job. A crew from Hull Cable Television interviewed Stezelecki and Beedle, which caused a bit of a delay in the qualifying start times.

Teams and Qualifying

We had one missing, forgetful NY driver and with Rob pinned to his desk at Berklee, we had to do some re-juggling of the teams. We used the Dan DeCosmo SystemTM to fill in the drivers for each team. Andre acted as the goat (chevre) to choose names out of the hat. And he took the blame quite graciously.

Once team selection was completed each team chose a driver to do the one-minute qualification run. The team with the best qualifying time would choose which chassis and body color it wanted to race. Team CT (The Constitution State) -- Dan DeCosmo, Erik Eckhardt, Mike Martyn, and Brian Skidmore -- would take the top honors. Erik Eckhardt blew everyone away, posting a best time of 5.183. This would also hold up as the best time of the day until the last hour of the race. Team MA – John Stezelecki, John Pileggi, and Dave Muse -- took second with 5.494. Third went to Team Madd (the State of Confusion) – Steve Medanic, Tom Gray, and Tom Bussman -- with 5.525 seconds.

The fourth position went to the TK Team – Tom Kanan, Joe Eastlack, and Eric Chagnot -- posting a 5.528. They were followed by Team RI (The Ocean State) – T.J. Mottola, Rick Hubbert, Rudy Urban, and Mark Kaminsky -- with 5.670. Team Beedle – Gary Beedle, Jim Macartney, and Andre Perra -- would take the final spot with a glacial 5.799. How did THAT happen? It should be noted that Team CT’s Dan DeCosmo TQ’d for last year’s Nuvolari Enduro with a 6.06, a mark that was broken by all six teams this year.

Choosing the Lanes


Naturally, TQ chose which lane they want to start in, and the rest of the field then chose what is left by order of their qualifying results. The usual strategy in an Enduro that has nighttime driving is to choose the easiest lanes to drive during dark conditions. Team CT didn’t surprise anyone when they started with Red, allowing them to get the gutter lanes out of the way early. Team MA chose Yellow and would get the two best lanes of green and orange during the dark conditions. Team TK raised a lot of eyebrows by choosing the green lane to start in. This “strategic” move put the team in the difficult position of driving in the dark on the toughest lanes, and hoping for compensatorially big totals on the easiest lanes under daylight conditions. This strategy proved costly (team principal Tom Kanan was gently, yet thoroughly, mocked after the race), and must have brought smiles to the Madd team as they chose White to start. RI picked Blue and Team Beedle was left with Orange.

First Heat

At about 10:30am the countdown began and the race started. It would be a full hour before the dust started to settle. It was verified that all six teams took the mandatory two- minute pit stop required in each heat. When the power stopped at heat’s end, Team TK was in the lead with 545 laps, and a best time of 5.641. Team Madd was only one lap back, at 544. Team MA and Team Beedle were tied with 521. Holding the fourth spot was CT who ran 511 laps on gutter Red. Finishing in the last position were the boys from the Ocean State, with 478.

Heat Svei

After two hours, Team TK continued in the lead with a lap total of 1074. Team MA took a giant step up to second, just 10 laps back. Team CT held the 3rd spot with 1056, only one lap over Team Madd. The Beedle team was in fifth with a 1045 but still a mere 19 laps out of first. The Beedle team would also score its best lap time of the day with 5.607 seconds on Green. Team Little Rhody (RI) continued to struggle through the heat with some minor mechanical problems, at 907. Before heat’s end, the teams hustled to install the lights for the upcoming nighttime period. Much dashing and sweating ensued.

Heat Trois (In Darkness)

Over the first 15 minutes of this heat, the room lights slowly dimmed until total darkness settled over the track area. The gutter lanes would become especially difficult. We can imagine just how rough this was for Jim Macartney and Brian Skidmore, neither of whom had raced magnet cars in several years, never mind the “back to future” GJets. EKGs would have been interesting. When the third hour concluded, another lead change had taken place. Team MA had ruthlessly begun to take control of the race, methodically ticking over 530 laps in the dark, for a total of 1594. Team TK dropped to second, putting up 488 laps on gutter Red (oooh, bad strategy!) for a total of 1562. Team CT sat nine laps behind TK with 1553. The Beedle team appeared to thrive in the dark conditions by putting up 513 laps in the heat, bringing their total to 1558. Team RI had 479 laps, totaling 1386.


El Heat Quatro

While most of the drivers had adjusted pretty well to the dark conditions, an audible sigh of relief could be heard as the room gradually returned to daylight over the last 15 minutes of the Heat 4. The lead didn’t change. Team MA scored its best lap time of the day with a 5.487 on the Green lane, and put laps on every team. Team TK held onto a slight lead over CT with a 2092 to CT’s 2076. The Beedle team held fourth position by 56 laps (2053) over the Madd team with 1997 laps. The Rhodettes continued to struggle gamely, with a total of 1849 laps.

Like five, man

After five, MA was still holding first, but team TK held a razor blade lead of 1 lap over team CT, 2630 to 2629. Team CT, on the green lane put up its best lap time of the day with a 5.389. Under the leadership (?) of Steve Medanic, Team Madd would score the second highest heat total for the day with a sensational 560 laps on Orange, bringing its total lap count to 2557. This performance vaulted Madd eight laps past the Beedle team into the fourth position. The Beedle team had held a 56-lap lead over the Madd team going into the heat! The RI team was now deep in the hole with a total of 2293. They had a group hug, and decided to buckle down in Heat Six, make laps, and set the bar high for Team Slobbovia, who are eagerly expected to compete next year, in Nuvolari3.

The Sixth and Final Hour

Going into the final hour, Team MA did not feel comfortable holding a mere 40-lap lead over Team TK, and 41 over Team CT. The Massachusetts boys would finish on gutter Red and having just seen Team Beedle punt a 56-lap lead over Team Madd into the weeds, they could feel their collars getting a little tight. With Team TK entering the Orange lane and Team CT finishing on White, Team MA was at a disadvantage, and had to remain quick, yet cautious. They did. The top three teams summoned tremendous concentration in the final heat, each team running their best heat total for the day. But in the end, team MA rose to the occasion, running 555 laps, giving them 3225 and top honors. The Nuvolari2 Enduro Championship was theirs. The team also broke last year’s 6-hour record of 3116.

At the end, Team CT ran the best single-heat total of the day -- a whopping 562 laps -- and squeezed past Team TK by a mere seven laps (!), ringing up a grand total of 3191. After six very full hours of racing, Team CT had finished a mere 34 laps behind the winning MA team. Though they fell to third place, Team TK made the Connecticut guys work hard for it, as they turned their own best heat total of 554 laps and best lap time of 5.422 seconds. Team Madd took fourth place. Steve Medanic had the best lap time of the day with a record breaking (and possibly drug enhanced) 5.171 seconds, which beat Erik Eckhardt’s qualifying time of 5.183 seconds; Steve and his mates totaled 3106 laps. The Beedle team’s car continued to get slower and slower, porking out with 461 laps on Blue for a total lap count of 3010, and fifth place. Nuvolari first-timers Team RI struggled all day, but they never quit. T.J. Mottola and friends closed hard, putting up their best heat total of the day, 498 laps on gutter Yellow, for a sixth place finish, and 2791 laps.

The “2nd Battle of the GJets” had ended with a new champion. But everyone’s a winner, because we collectively raised another $730 for the Ethan Duda Scholarship Fund. Other April donations to the fund included $200 from Steve Medanic’s Crystal Rock Raceway 9-Hour GJet IROC Enduro, as well as $320 from a raffle at the HOCOC Nationals in Charlotte, NC. This event also brought out some great drivers and car builders from the West Coast and the Midwest. And it was wonderful to see Jim Macartney and Brian Skidmore come out of retirement for the day. I know they must have had a few frustrating moments trying to learn how to drive a new type of car, especially in darkened conditions, but they did a great job. Team RI had a difficult day, but because this wasn’t NASCAR, no one was harmed. We all know they’ll be back next year and more experienced. I’m sure it can’t come too soon for them. Be sure to bring baked goods, guys.

Special thanks to our sponsors: Scale Auto and BSRT’s Gary Beedle (who prepared six beautiful GJets for this race, along with the fantastic plaques emblazoned with the 1970 Le Mans-winning Salzburg red Porsche 917 on them; and Frank Klucevsek, who provided the Interstate hats (with lights!) and the Valvoline hats. To Steve Medanic, Gary Beedle and Andre Perra for traveling so far to race with us and help make this event a real gasser. To Bill Kurtz of HOCOC, who organized the raffle at the HOCOC Nationals, and its participating members who graciously donated to the Duda Scholarship. Thanks to Steve Medanic for the contributions from his enduro and to all the racers everywhere, who continue to donate to the fund to help send our friend’s son to college.

We‘ve heard several suggestions for improvements to the Nuvolari Enduro and we will consider each one carefully. We hope to see many of you here for Nuvolari3, “Third Battle of the GJets” on May 3, 2008, as well as the 2007 G3 Championships being held at the end of July in Washington, which as we all know, is the Evergreen State.