"It was a dark and stormy night." so of course that must mean we are at Nelson Ledges for another endurance race. In the annals of endurance racing, the 12 Hours of Nelson Ledges runs wild with stories of hard fought battles, enduring all manner of weather conditions, and survival of only the very fittest achieving victory. With apologies to good literature everywhere, Race 5 of the USERA Carbotech Endurance Championship, which was held as part of the SCCA 12 Hours of Nelson Ledges event, certainly had the makings of a classic battle. Weather once again threatened to the deciding factor as teams prepared for 12 grueling hours around this historic battle ground.

Several plot lines were unfolding as the event weekend arrived. Puskar Motorsports co-drivers Chris Puskar (Shelby, NC) and David Daughtery (Carmel, IN) arrived at Nelson Ledges with a mere 23 point lead in the Driver Championship over third place driver Shawn Dewey (Dover, DE). Dewey had closed the gap with a great Race 4 finish at Nashville Superspeedway. But when Dewey's original Nelson Ledges entry had to be withdrawn due to damage sustained in a non-USERA event, Dewey's Driver Championship chase was suddenly in jeopardy. Luckily, one of the first unexpected plot twists occurred when Dewey was able to secure a seat with King Rat Motorsports in their #1 car with new co-drivers Hugh Sutton (Springfield, MO) and newcomer Bret Spaude (Bushnell, FL).

Dewey had made a brilliant run during qualifying to put the King Rat Motorsports #1 car on pole. This earned Dewey the coveted one point for pole position. Puskar Motorsports entries #26 and #27 qualified second and third, with the second King Rat Motorsports #72 entry in fourth for the start. What really impressed everyone was that USERA Spec Miatas had qualified third and fourth overall behind and between two SCCA ITE and one very fast SCCA SPU entries.

The weather experts had originally predicted a sunny day for the race start Saturday. But teams were greeted Saturday morning to dark and foreboding skies, and a lot of wet pavement. The Saturday morning warm up, which was originally planned by most teams to scuff some tires and bed in brake pads, was a "wash out". literally. Only a handful of teams tempted fate and took advantage of the warm up. Those who did struggled to keep their cars on course.

It was raining fairly heavily at the start and Dewey maintained the USERA lead for the first dozen laps. He assumed the overall race lead for one lap on lap 13 as several teams stopped for our first full course caution of the morning. Dewey had earned another valuable point for leading a race lap. On lap 14 Mark Bennett (Lagrange, OH), who had started the #26 Puskar Motorsports entry, assumed the USERA lead and the 26 car would maintain that lead though to the end of the race.

The middle bit of the race, that part where drivers are supposed to relax and drive safely to keep the car in the race, should be dull and boring. But no part of this race was dull or boring. The weather conditions threw unexpected twists to all the teams. Several cars introduced themselves to various tire walls, including one non-USERA Miata that landed on its roof after sliding off course in hour seven. But the legendary fast and efficient Nelson Ledges safety teams kept the caution laps to a minimum. Cleanups were so fast and efficient that most caution periods lasted mere minutes.

Every team experienced a problem of one sort or another with the damp conditions and challenging course. Dewey slid wide early and made light contact with the tires, forcing on unscheduled stop to have the nose of the #1 King Rat Motorsports entry removed. The second King Rat Motorsports entry, car #72 being driven by Serena Traver (Delmar, CA) slid off course and made heavy impact into tire wall. Traver reported a sore neck after the impact and was sent to the regional medical center as a precaution. She was treated and released with minor injuries. The remaining #72 King Rat drivers, Tim Traver (Delmar, CA), Gray Gregory (Houston, TX) and racing legend Divina Galica (Lakeville, CT), returned to the race after 45 minutes behind the wall for repairs only to be forced to retire after in hour seven with unrelated mechanical problems.

The pole sitting King Rat car ran a strong race all day, but eventually had to retire with 400 laps competed with mechanical problems.

Chris Puskar in the #26 car, and Pat Sandlin (Memphis, TN) in the #27 car both suffered late race off course excursions that required help from of the Nelson Ledges safety crew to continue. The #27 car also suffered a 31 lap stop early in the event to replace a faulty alternator. Nelson Ledges veteran Al Franzalino (Parma, OH) made his USERA debut behind the wheel of the #27 car and helped that team secure their second place podium finish.

It was the last hour that provided some of the most exciting moments of the race. Puskar, and his #26 USERA Spec Miata, caught the #82 SCCA ITE RC Imports Mercedes Benz driven by veteran Chuck Hemmingson. The two would exchange the lead several times before a late race stop by the #82 for oil gave the overall victory to Puskar.

Chris Puskar and David Daughtery maintained the Driver Points lead and by virtue of leading the most laps, extended their lead over Dewey by five points. Dewey is now 28 points behind Puskar and Daughtery as we head into the west coast swing of the Championship. The strong second place finish by the sister Puskar Motorsports entry helped Danny Puskar (Shelby, NC) to close within 5 points of fourth place Tom Long. Bennett, a veteran Nelson Ledges driver, set the fast lap of the weekend, and a new USERA track record for Nelson Ledges, with a 1:18.561 on lap 303. Bennett's time was actually better then Dewey's pole qualifying time from Friday, which shows that the race pace, even early in the event, was very quick indeed.

Race 6 of the USERA Carbotech Endurance Championship takes place September 29-30 at Lime Rock Park as part of the Mohegan Sun NASCAR Busch East weekend. The full series schedule can be found at www.usenduro.com