Saturday evening was time for the 2 hour enduro. Running in NASA E2 were four 944-SPEC cars driven by Foxx, Ariano, Paluch with the fourth shared by Eric Kuhns and Ray Freundt. The race was run to NASA enduro rules and required all cars to stop to add five gallons of fuel with no time limit for the stop. The 944 cars started at the back of the grid in the same order as qualifying for the sprint race. Quickly Jim Foxx jumped from 3rd to 944 lead and in a few short laps simply checked out.

Paluch passed and held off Ariano for the next 25 lap also battling with a Miata. As the race approached the 1 hour mark Foxx was out of sight having turned laps at nearly qualifying pace for most of the race. Ariano was able to close to Paluch passed for 2nd. All too soon however it was time for his pit stop. Paluch stayed out as his pit stratagey put his stop near the 90 minute mark. Ariano’s pit stop was slowed by problems opening the fuel door and by the need to check the oil level. This caused Ariano to lose approximately 1 and ¾ laps to Paluch. Time would tell if this was to be costly.

As soon as Ariano pitted the course started coming to Paluch. Lap times began to drop off as Paluch’s full fuel load of 17 gallons worn down to about a ½ tank. The reduce weight and improve balance made the car come alive and he repeated improved his best lap. All too soon another 30 minutes had passed and it was time for his stop. The fueling of Paluch’s car went without a hitch and progressed rapidly.

The only problem that marred a flawless stop was trouble stating warm engine. Only few seconds were lost in process and with 25 minutes to go Paluch rejoined the track. He was on the look out for Ariano unaware of Ariano’s difficulties during his stop and was able to spot him about 1 mile up the course. It was impossible to determine if catching Ariano would be for position or for a lap. As such the only option was to push. In the process Paluch turned in his best lap running near qualifying pace. While he was not able to catch Ariano on track he did almost catch the lapped 84 944-SPEC shared by Kuhns and Freundt finishing less that 1 hundredth of a second behind.

Once all the results were compiled 944-SPEC cars took the top two spots in E2 with Foxx winning the class follow by Paluch. Ariano took 5th in E2 one lap back of Paluch and Foxx. Foxx and Paluch were also 4th and 5th overall. Foxx and Ariano also ran some strong lap times with Ariano’s best at 2:21.0 and Foxx turning an amazing 2:20.8 all in the closing stages of the race.