August 09, 2006 – Contact: Amy Ruman
Munroe Falls, OH – The Ruman sisters had a good weekend driving in the SCCA double National at Pocono International Raceway, PA.
Amy Ruman was off to another fast weekend, qualifying in the pole position for both races, with a 1:28.277 and a 1:27.328 in GT-1. It was a deep field with ten GT-1’s. Trans-Am driver Joey Scarallo showed up from New York and battled it out all weekend with Ruman. Ruman set the pace in both races breaking the track record of 1:29.391 first in Saturday’s race with a 1:28.718 then again in Sunday’s race with an even faster time of 1:28.070, but she was unable to come up with a win. Ruman led five laps in Saturday’s race and eleven laps in Sunday’s race. But in both races, Scarallo passed Ruman for the lead in the chicane on the back straight. Saturday’s top three finishers were Scarallo, Ruman, and Moyer, Sunday’s top three were Scarallo, Ruman, and Thumel.
“It was really unfortunate that I was unable to bring home a win. In each race I got the short end of the stick with traffic, when I came up on cars in the A Sedan class (they were running 17-19 seconds slower than the our times). In Sunday’s race, there was contact between Joey and an AS. The AS went off the track and came back on right in front of me as Joey and I were side by side – I got blocked and Joey passed me. I had a good run on him on the last lap, but it wasn’t enough,” stated Ruman. “Still, it was fun racing; we were running close in both races. I was very happy to get my fourth track record of the season. My hats off to my crew for giving me such a fast car all season, it looks like we also won the NE Championship!”
It appears that Ruman has locked up first place in the Northeast Division points championship for GT-1. There are a few more out of division races that can be run for points improvement, but even if one of her competitors was to run and improve, it won’t be enough to pass Ruman for the lead.
Niki Ruman drove her #20 Spec Racer Ford to finish 19th and 15th respectfully in both of her races. After working out the kinks in Saturday’s race, Ruman improved and ran faster in Sunday’s race. She was running in 12th when she got hit from behind in turn one and spun out. She was able to battle her way back up to 15th for the checkered flag.
Next up: Sept. 3: SCCA National at Nelson’s Ledges Road Course, OH
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