Devil in Dark race draws endurance drivers

Endurance racing isn't just a matter of horsepower and stamina. Strategy and skill count, too.

"It's about going as fast as you possibly can through the turns," Mike LaMaina says. "It's about the momentum."

A lifelong motorhead, LaMaina will be at the wheel of his 1992 Mazda Miata at the Devil in the Dark race Saturday at the New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville.

The event, sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America, runs from noon to midnight.

"When it gets dark is when it gets fun," LaMaina, 55, tells me, eyes shining.

"You're in a 120-horsepower Miata doing 117 miles an hour, and you have a 450-horsepower Corvette closing in on you at about 160. At night.

"Imagine what that's like."

I'd rather not, to be honest. But LaMaina and other racers I talk to are personable, persuasive, and enthusiastic ambassadors for their sport.

"There's a sense of fellowship and brotherhood," says Tom Smith, 52, of Marlton, who has raced for 25 years. "Everybody is there to help each other out on the pit lane. And then they go compete on the track."

About 40 four-member teams of drivers are expected to compete Saturday. LaMaina's team includes his older brother Pete, of Washington Township, and Mike and Steve Thomas, brothers from Marlton.

"Racing really is a family affair," says Mike LaMaina, a father of three, standing next to the cheery yellow Miata in his Oaklyn driveway.

He served as the borough's mayor for a dozen years until 2012, and is president of Cornerstone Financial Advisors in Haddon Township.

"My wife comes with me. My daughters come with me," he says. "There are tents set up and people hanging out and grabbing something to eat. . . . There's stuff going on all over the place."

Says Pete, 58: "My wife and my two daughters know cars, and they literally are my pit crew. It would be hard to do it without them."

He notes that during an "enduro" race, pit stops are kept to a minimum, but are nevertheless inevitable.

In addition to changing drivers, "there's a lot of fuel to move around, tires to be changed, and usually some sort of repair to be made," he says. "It's much more challenging on the pit crew."

The LaMaina brothers grew up in Oaklyn, where their dad owned a service station on the White Horse Pike. "We must have gotten the gene," Mike says. "We've worked on cars and motorcycles our entire lives.

"I had one theory: If I could take it apart, I could figure out what was wrong and put it back together."

Mike drag-raced as a teenager and later got involved in motocross racing. In 2007, he followed his brother into off-street road racing at closed-course tracks such as Millville.

While Pete's vehicle, known as a Spec Racer Ford or SRF, was built for racing, other drivers, like Mike, compete in modified street cars.

For an endurance race, "you have to calm yourself and get into a Zen state before you go," says veteran racer Don Colanero, 65, of Mount Laurel, who is active in SCCA's South Jersey region.

"You're bumper to bumper, door handle to door handle, for much of the race," Mike says. "You can't get freaked out."

He and the Miata will be ready. "I check every single nut and bolt," Mike says.

Saturday's winner won't walk away with riches or fame.

"Just a podium picture, a trophy, and bragging rights," Mike says. "Sometimes, local sponsors will throw in gift certificates or a coupon."

For the competitors, their crews, and families, he adds, "just the love of racing" is reward enough.

"Few things in life can compare to going 120 miles an hour inches from one of your friends," says Mike.

He recalls a sprint race last year in which he and Pete crossed the finish line side-by-side, four one-thousandths of a second apart.

"He beat me," Mike says. "But it was one of the greatest racing days of my life."