October 29, 2003 – San Juan, PR – Bob Ruman ended the season with a great race, right down to the final turn of the Trans-Am season finale at the Puerto Rico Grand Prix, bringing home 5th place in Sunday’s race.
“The temporary circuit at Isla Grade Airport, in San Juan was a beautiful location for a race,” said Ruman. “We came here hoping and working for a top-5 finish and we’re quite pleased to have achieved it. The McNichols/Cenweld Corvette handled well right out of the box and we made a series of small changes that had us going better each session we were out.”
The first two practices on Friday left the McNichols/Cenweld Corvette placed 7th and 6th respectively. The third and fourth practices left Ruman a little slower as the crew had him trying the car in full race trim to check its behavior. “We had very solid handling, even though the third practice was cut short for us when we holed a differential oil line. The oil stream was directed right on the left rear tire,” Ruman said. “That made for some wild moments, but we were absolutely certain we had a dialed-in car.”
The race was exciting from the beginning. Ruman qualified 10th and started 9th on the grid. He worked his way through a couple of early race incidents and four double yellows that left him finally, near the end of the race, in 4th place, challenging Mike Lewis for 3rd.
“I got a good re-start after a late race double-yellow and made a run on Mike going into turn five. He left me all the room I needed, but, unfortunately it was all marbles out where I had to go to pass him and I just couldn’t keep the car in shape.”
Ruman lost three spots there, which dropped him back to 7th and left him playing catch-up to the lead pack. By the final lap, Ruman had closed back up on the fifth and sixth cars. Heading up the back straight towards the final turn, Ruman noticed Diaz beginning an attempt to pass.
“I could see Jorge coming and realized there was no way he’d make this pass and stay on the track, so I drove my line and waited for him to slide on by, figuring I’d criss-cross him on the way out, but he ended up cleaning the two cars off in front of me, so I just threaded the needle and drove away from them all.”
Ruman and his team offer congratulations to Wally Castro and his whole crew for their impressive and well-deserved win in the race. “The crowd was going absolutely nuts during the race, you could see them all on their feet and I swear you could hear them over the cars’ noise,” said Ruman. “By the time I got around on the cool down lap, the crew was telling me to watch out for spectators on the track!”
The 5th place finish moved Ruman and the McNichols/Cenweld Corvette up to 15th in the overall standings, from 18th place going into the Puerto Rico Grand Prix. Needless to say, the team was ecstatic, even more so when they found at the season finale banquet that Ruman was awarded the Westward Tools Tough Tools Tough Guy Award for overcoming a bout with kidney cancer and yet still returning to the Series to put in several top-10 finishes including this 5th place finish at Puerto Rico.
###
