(Photo courtesy of www.bodynbobsled.com)
WESTFIELD – As the games of 22nd Winter Olympiad get underway in Sochi, Russia, this week, the City of Westfield is set to play a larger role than one might expect in the success of Team USA.
While women’s ice hockey defenseman Kacey Bellamy is by far the most notable Whip City product repping the stars and stripes, a local manufacturing company is also playing a small part in the efforts of another Team USA squad.
Widely known as “The Night Train” because of their four-man bobsled’s distinct black paint job, USA-1 will be driven in Sochi once again by bobsled legend Steve Holcomb of Park City, Utah, who is looking to repeat his gold medal performance during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, a performance made possible by bobsled blades, or runners, made by Advance Manufacturing in Westfield.
“We’ve been manufacturing these blades since the early 2000s,” said Advance Manufacturing Production Manager Jeffrey Amanti. “All the guys here are very proud to produce these, and it’s a huge morale booster knowing they’re part of the Olympic experience. Everyone is excited to be a part of it.”
Amanti added that the company has made about 15 different sets of blades for the four-man team, which measure in at 14 mm thick, or about half an inch.
The blades on the bottom front of the sled measure in at 36 inches long, while the bottom back runners measure 48 inches in length.
Guy Ronzoni, an assistant plant manager at Advance, has been the bridge between the manufacturer and Team USA since his chance encounter with a key player in the bobsledding program in a different racetrack.
“I’m into auto racing, and it was in racing modified stockcars that I met Bob Cunio,” said Ronzoni. “He was working as a crew chief at the time for Geoff Bodine.”
Bodine, an 18-time NASCAR Sprint Cup winner, joined forces with Cunio’s Chassis Dynamics shop in Oxford, Conn. to start the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project in 1993.
Ronzoni said that Cunio had been watching international bobsled powerhouses like Germany feed millions of dollars into their program and subseqeuntly dominate the scene, while Team USA, who hadn’t won a gold medal in the event since 1948, was falling behind.
“He (Cunio) got in touch with me and asked ‘Can you help us? We just don’t have the money,'” said Ronzoni. “And I thought ‘We have the assets to help Team USA. This is for Team USA.'”
“”We took the materials, we took the parts, and made the runners,” Ronzoni said. “After they won gold (in Vancouver), one of the bobsledders came to Advance and presented us with one of the runners on a plaque. It was great.”
After BMW of North America came in to build Team USA’s bobsleds for the 2014 games, members of the team sought out Bo-Dyn and Advance to do some tinkering.
“BMW came in and sort of pushed everyone out,” said Ronzoni. “But (Steve) Holcomb came to us about the runners. So we changed the design, and changed the radius of them.”
Cunio has been glad to partner with Advance in their effort to keep the USA on the top of the podium in bobsledding.
“We were searching for companies that were sophisticated enough, and many had the machines, but not enough length to make them,” he said. “We had the ideas, and Advance had the programming and machines. So we produced the runners in Westfield.”
He spoke of the collaborative effort between the two companies.
“I bring them the design program, and Advance does the rest,” Cunio said. “We bring the runners to test tracks, still have all our runners and our new sets. It’s a lot of experimentation.”
Cunio said the success of the partnership was almost immediate.
“We medaled with a silver and a bronze in the four-man in 2002 (in Salt Lake City), and then after winning gold in Vancouver, we’ve won a couple of world championships.” he said.
Bo-Dyn is a non-profit that works independently to support Team USA, and their efforts have a steep pricetag, recognized by the efforts of companies like Advance Manufacturing, who have yet to charge Bo-Dyn a dime, according to Ronzoni.
“It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and every year it’s a challenge, because we work independently of any federation,” said Cunio, before adding that donations can be made at www.bodynbobsled.com.
When asked of whether the vaunted “Night Train” of Holcomb, Curt Tomasevicz, Steve Langton, and Chris Fogt can race to another gold medal performance, Cunio isn’t making any guarantees, but is confident nonetheless.
“I’m not saying we’ll win gold, but we’re poised,” he said. “I don’t believe we can be in any better position going into the games. Our crew is healthy and our team is healthy.”
Team USA’s two-man bobsled event will begin on Sunday February 16, the women’s bobsled will start on Tuesday February 18, and the Night Train begins it’s gold medal defense on Saturday February 22.
