June 20, 2005 – Contact: Amy Ruman 330.813.2323 cell
Munroe Falls, OH – What a weekend for Amy Ruman and the Ruman Racing team. Ruman, driving the #23 McNichols/Cenweld Corvette, took her third pole in a row. Ruman posted the fastest time in the morning practice session and solidified the pole position in the afternoon qualifying session with a quick time of 55.077 seconds, beating the existing GT-1 track record of 56.418 seconds.
Out of the eight car GT-1 line-up, the first two rows in Sunday’s race were Ruman, Bret Moyer, William Rozmajzi, and Bill Thumel. The green flag fell and Ruman and Moyer took off. They were side-by-side down the front straight, through turns one and two, when Ruman took the lead going into turn three. Ruman lead lap one with Moyer right on her tail. Moyer passed Ruman under braking into turn 1 on the second lap. Ruman fell in behind and the chase was on. Moyer created some distance, but Ruman kept him in sight. Ruman closed the gap up and they ran nose to tail about 13 laps.
On lap 21, the two caught some lapped traffic, Moyer washed out a bit coming out of turn 5, Ruman ducked to the inside and they ran side-by-side up the hill. Ruman made the pass at the top of the hill to take the lead. Ruman created some distance from Moyer, who was then in the hunt. With about four laps to go, something went amiss with Ruman’s transmission. She lost 2nd gear and was forced to use 3rd, 4th, and 5th for the remaining laps, which slowed her times down. Her lead shrunk to about 2 seconds by the final lap; but Moyer spun on the downhill trying to catch Ruman. Ruman took the checkered for her second win this season, Moyer finished 2nd, and Bill Thumel was 3rd.
“That was an unbelievable race!” stated Ruman. “Bret and I were really dicing it out. We raced flag to flag with no breaks at all. The speed and time difference was astounding with the GT-2’s, GT-3’s, and A Sedans mixed into our group. I felt like we were in a video game just slicing through cars lap after lap. At the end, there were only three of us on the lead lap; everyone else was two or more laps down.”
“Bret and I both agreed that was one of the best races we’d ever been in. Bret got the track record though, with a 55.174 so my hats off to him. My best time was a 55.746, but I just couldn’t find my qualifying time in the race again. Oh well, I’ll take the win! My crew has really dialed in great set-ups for the McNichols/Cenweld Corvette the past three races, I couldn’t have done it without them.”
The National Northeast point’s race is really heating up, with Ruman back in the lead with 38 points, Hopwood in 2nd with 36, and Canney in 3rd with 24.
Next Up – July 9-10: SCCA GT-1 National at Watkins Glen, NY
www.rumanracing.com
www.McNichols.com
