For Immediate Release: July 16, 2009
Contact: Amy Ruman 330.813.2323 cell
Munroe Falls, OH – Amy Ruman entered her fourth Trans-Am race of the season at Watkins Glen International. The Trans-Am race ran the Watkins Glen “long course” where Ruman holds the GT-1 track record at 1:52.693 seconds around the 3.4-mile course. Ruman, in the #23 McNichols Co./Goodyear/Cenweld Corvette, was 4th in practice, with a lap time two seconds faster than her track record, at 1:50.366 seconds, with an average speed of 110.9 mph. Trans-Am qualifying was held early race-day morning and right out of the box, Ruman encountered a car problem. The crew worked on the car in the pit lane and was able to get her back on the track with five minutes left in the session. Ruman was able to put together enough of a lap to score her an eight place starting position on the 15-car grid, with a time of 1:51.534.
“I was lucky enough to get back on the track to piece together a qualifying lap, but disappointed that we had a oil pressure problem which lead to a motor change before the race. We thought we could fix it, but we just didn’t want to risk the motor not lasting the 90 mile race,” said Ruman. Ruman was one of three competitors, Ave and Drissi, which had to change a motor before Sunday’s race.
“I had a great start, and began working my way through the field. The whole race I had a great battle with Daniel Ramoutarsingh from Rocketsports Racing. We had close, intense racing for most of the race, swapping positions in nearly every turn. It had to be a fun duel to watch for the fans, too. All of a sudden, I started having electrical problems and dropped back a bit from Daniel. I made some changes in the cockpit and thought I had cured it and starting charging again for Daniel. I closed the gap but then the ignition problem came back, cutting my power. I had to play it conservatively to the end of the race and took the checkered in 4th place. We had the speed for the podium, but unfortunately we were plagued with race day problems again.”
Amy Ruman is currently 9th in the Trans-Am point standings, having only run in 4 of the 6 races. Ruman will compete in Round 7 of the Muscle Milk SCCA Trans-Am Series at Road America on September 20th followed by the SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Road America September 21st-27th.
Niki Ruman hopped in the #23 McNichols Co./Dynasty Motorsports Spec Racer for her second race of the season. She qualified 28th in the 41-car field and moved up to finish 24th. “Watkins Glen is surely one of my favorite venues,” stated Ruman. “There was good, clean racing this weekend and that always makes things fun.”
**NEW** – For race weekend updates and quick news, you can now follow the Ruman Racing team online at: http://twitter.com/rumanracing
