DAYTONA BEACH — Nick Gurucharri, a 10-year veteran of the Daytona Beach Police Department, will be hard at work next weekend at the Speedway during the Rolex 24.
But he won’t be wearing a badge and carrying a gun. Instead he'll wear a fire suit and carry a nozzle as the gas man for the No. 15 3GT Racing Lexus RCF GT3, the same car that Scott Pruett will wheel in his last race as a professional driver.
Gurucharri, 34, is headed into his second season working for 3GT [...]
DAYTONA BEACH — Nick Gurucharri, a 10-year veteran of the Daytona Beach Police Department, will be hard at work next weekend at the Speedway during the Rolex 24.
But he won’t be wearing a badge and carrying a gun. Instead he'll wear a fire suit and carry a nozzle as the gas man for the No. 15 3GT Racing Lexus RCF GT3, the same car that Scott Pruett will wheel in his last race as a professional driver.
Gurucharri, 34, is headed into his second season working for 3GT Racing, which is located in East Lansing, Michigan.
“I did 10 races and two tests last year,” said the father of two during a recent sit-down interview at the Speedway. “Fortunately, our chief of police loves racing. He thinks it is the coolest thing in the world.”
Gurucharri has been racing since he was an 8-year-old kid wheeling go-karts in his native Miami.
From there, he went SCCA club racing, went on to the SCCA national tour then became a regular in what is now called the IMSA Continental Tire Challenge.
“When I raced Grand-Am Cup, I worked at Bell Motorsports, which had a Doran JE4-Pontiac Prototype,” he said. “I worked fulltime at the shop and went to college. We won the Rolex 24 overall in 2004.”
From there, Gurucharri transferred to North Florida in Jacksonville and began working for Brumos Racing.
“Both those race teams let me race on Saturday and work on the pit crew Sundays,” he said. “I was fortunate to do a little bit of everything.
“I got to race Acuras, Mazdas, Porsches and BMWs. I had the opportunity to race and have somebody else pay for it.”
His racing connections helped him land with the Daytona police force and got him back into the sport as part of a traveling pit crew.
“Assembling a group of people who work really well together and are able to accomplish the same end goal in an organized and timely manner is really important,” he said. “This group really seems to be a well-oiled machine.”
Police chief Craig Capri is a long-time fan of NASCAR and IMSA racing. He is all for Gurucharri’s side job.
“I’m fine with that,” Capri said. “I think it’s great he’s involved with racing. It actually gets our police department’s name out there in a positive light. We are a racing town.”
Capri plans to attend the Rolex 24 and show his support for Gurucharri, but quickly adds, “I don’t think I’ll be there at 3 in the morning.”
Gurucharri logs some long hours when he dons his pit crew uniform. He calls the Rolex 24, the “Rolex 40” because he punches the clock on race day at 7 in the morning. The race goes green at 2:40 p.m. Saturday and ends next Sunday afternoon.
“It takes the better part of two days to set up the pits to the configuration of how we want things set up so we have a smooth operation,” he said. “We don’t have alternate team members. We have people assigned to our No. 14 car and No. 15 car.
“Whatever your task is, that’s your task for the duration of the race. In a perfect race, you can expect one pit stop about every hour. With caution flags and things like that, we end up with 28 to 30 stops.”
John Gentilozzi is the technical director for 3GT Racing and said Gurucharri is a valued member of the race-day crew.
“It doesn’t obviously seem a lot of parallels between motorsports and police work, but certainly one of the things that we look at with Nick is his ability to be situationally aware,” Gentilozzi said. “As a police officer you always have to be aware of the things that are around you and what’s going on and maintain a cool head in all situations.
“Certainly, Nick as our fueler has an even larger load upon him. He’s holding, essentially, a wick. So, he has to be very aware of what’s going on around him and what may be happening with the car at any given time.”
Gurucharri doesn’t consider his job with the race team as “work.” He said his motorsports duties help take his mind off of his police work, which can be extremely stressful.
“Law enforcement has changed a lot, especially in the last three or four years,” he said. “The general public doesn’t see the things we do.
“It is crucial to have a hobby or do something else you are interested in so you’re not doing law enforcement all the time. There are too many police officers who make that their whole world. It can be all consuming and beat you down.
“I love this motorsports stuff because it is a wonderful way to decompress. Racing is an incredible amount of work, but it is playtime for me. If you love what you do, you’re not working.”