The Piston Foundation, in partnership with Lime Rock Park, presented its fourth annual Piston Technician Award to Bob Gett at the Lime Rock Park Historic Festival 43. The presentation was made by Jeff Mason, president and COO of The Piston Foundation; the Festival’s Grand Marshal, Rob Dyson; and Dicky Riegel, president and CEO of Lime Rock Park.
This is the fourth year the award has been presented at the Lime Rock Park historic races, which recognizes the essential contributions auto technicians make to the collector car community through their trade skills and technical automotive expertise. It’s given to the MVP technician of the Lime Rock Park Historic Festival. The winner was nominated by the shops, teams, drivers and car owners participating in the race weekend.
Gett Started at KTR Racing in 1996
Gett, who works as the general manager at KTR Racing in Ayer, Massachusetts, was responsible for 12 race cars competing at Lime Rock. “At the shop, we’ve got about 30 cars that we manage. Plus, we do street car service. So, the shop usually has about 50, 60 cars in it,” said Gett, who started at KTR in 1996, when he was 16 years old.
“We’ve got a great group of customers who [I know] nominated me, and they’re great to work with,” added Gett. “The real reward we get out of the job is when the cars run good and the [customers] are happy at the end of the weekend. This award and recognition are very important. For this sport and the collector car hobby to continue, there needs to be the next generation of people that are enthusiastic about and willing to put in the effort to keep the cars running and keep them racing.”
The Importance of the Piston Technician Award
“Our goal at The Piston Foundation is to bring more young people into the trades of collector classic cars and give them a career path and help them along the way,” said Mason.
“The mechanics are the unsung heroes,” said Dyson. “They’re the people you don’t see in Victory Circle. They’re the ones who are not holding the trophy or kissing the race queen. They’re important to doing all the things that make a car work, from tuning, polishing, transporting, fabricating—whatever it takes. The Piston Foundation is the ideal vehicle to enhance the education of more technicians.”
The Piston Technician Award has been presented annually at the Lime Rock Historic Festival since 2022. Past winners include Mike Marra of Automobile Associates in Canton, Connecticut; Chris Kavaka of Vintage Racing Services in Stratford, Connecticut; and Davin Lindy of Brown Brothers Racing in Salisbury, Connecticut.
Race teams, drivers and car owners during the Vintage Sports Car Club of America (VSCCA)-sanctioned races at the Historic Festival 43 nominated technicians for the award. The trophy was designed and fabricated by automotive technology student Michael Samela from J.M. Wright Technical High School in Stamford, Connecticut. Piston and J.M. Wright work together to give Connecticut automotive students career-path support beyond the classroom.
Honorable Mentions for this year’s award include:
- James Adler
- Mike Aguitilo
- Holger Ahl
- Ben Bragg
- John Cannata
- Joe Crisafulli
- Jeffery Downing
- Sam Every
- Tony Garmey
- Brian Hannigan
- James Heth
- Dean Hutchinson
- Patrick Keegan
- Mark Lefferts
- Graham Long
- Hugh Stewart
- Bela Sztanko
- Vic Tamini
- Glenn Taylor
- Nathan Tufts
Students From J.M. Wright Get Up Close & Personal With the Vintage Race Cars
On Saturday, at Lime Rock Park, The Piston Foundation and the VSCCA hosted 21 automotive technology students from J.M. Wright for a tour of the race paddock and a close-up view of vintage race cars. The tour was coordinated by VSCCA community outreach leader Kobus Reyneke and led by Todd Daniels. Accompanying the students were John Goldbeck and Robert Tworkowski of J.M. Wright.
Also, on Saturday, four automotive technology students from J.M. Wright were given the opportunity to experience the jobs of racing technicians first-hand by participating in a job shadow program at the track with the crews of two leading Connecticut race shops: Vintage Racing Services in Stratford and GMT Racing in Newtown.
“Both the paddock tour and especially the job shadowing of race teams were invaluable because they allowed the students to envision themselves in the vintage racing industry and many aspects of a career choice in vehicle restoration,” said Goldbeck, lead instructor of the automotive technology program at J.M. Wright.