April 22, 2004 – Munroe Falls, OH – The Trans-Am season opener turned out to be a rather long race for driver Bob Ruman and his crew this past weekend at Long Beach. After qualifying 10th on the grid in the rain on Saturday, Ruman got caught up in a lap one, turn one incident and suffered severe damage to the front and sides of the McNichols/Cenweld Corvette.
“Well, my race did not turn out as we had planned. Unfortunately, we got caught right in the middle of a crash on the first lap of the race. It all happened in the middle of turn one. As I entered the turn, several of the cars in front of me had come together and the entire track was blocked. I managed to stop my car but got clobbered from the side and the back. I was able to fire up the car again and get through as a narrow spot opened up. I brought the car back to my pit. My guys worked so hard, changed the nose of the car, used a lot of tape and wire ties, and got me back out there!” stated Ruman.
Even after going a number of laps down, Ruman’s crew was able to get the McNichols/Cenweld Corvette back out to finish the race. Although Ruman had to pit several more times in order to lock down loose body panels, he was able to reel in a 12th place finish.
“We really had a great car this weekend, too. The crash damage hadn’t really affected the handling of the car, although I could not go top speed in the straights – due to the body damage. I had to just try and get as many laps as I could before the end of the race. I owe this one to my outstanding crew for persevering and getting us to a 12th place finish. I’m pretty sure we got a lot of TV coverage, but we’d rather get it for on-track racing instead of in-the-pits repairs.”
Television – The race will air on a tape-delayed basis at 10:30am EST on Sunday, April 25 on Spike TV, during “Dangerous Curves.”
On Deck – Ruman is planning to run the Cleveland Grand Prix July 2-3 in the Mototrock Trans-Am Series.
