February 23, 2003 – Munroe Falls, OH – The Ruman Racing team’s St. Petersburg Trans-Am race weekend began as beautiful as the weather. Ruman was 9th in practice on Friday. On Saturday, he qualified 13th but started 11th for the race. Early in the race, a competitor tagged him in the right rear where the car’s battery is located. Just after that, the engine developed a miss. Ruman kept driving, hoping to outlast the problem, but on lap 8, the car lost power in the last turn and Ruman coasted into the pit lane. The crew tried installing a new battery, and even though the engine restarted, a mechanical miss remained and thus was unable to continue. Ruman placed 19th.
“This was a fantastic track and we had high hopes for the race,” said a disappointed Ruman. “We had tremendous support from our Tampa/St. Petersburg based sponsor McNichols Co. with many fans coming out to the race. I cannot emphasize just how disappointed we all are. We had a bit of a brake problem in Friday’s afternoon session, but the crew and I sorted that out and had no other problems. The set-up and handling worked great right out of the box. We ran Sunday’s morning warm-up in race trim and I still had a good car.”
“The track surface offered pretty good traction. Without a doubt, this was one of the best first-year street courses we’ve run on,” Ruman continued. “The weather was magnificent and the track was wide and smooth. The fans really made us feel at home and told us they couldn’t wait to have us back next year. The organizers put together a great event and had a large fan turnout.”
“About the only thing I can complain about, though, were the leaves along trackside. The front end of the Trans-Am Corvette is like a scoop, and during Saturday’s qualifying session, we loaded up the radiator intake with them and got the engine pretty hot. We checked over the engine thoroughly and it ran fine in Sunday’s morning warm-up, but you can’t predict everything. Something in the engine probably didn’t like the heat. I thought at first the tag I got from Boris had done the battery in, but it wasn’t really a hard hit and it turned out not to be electrical after all. We have a few months to get the car prepared again and my crew will have it in tip-top shape for Long Beach.”
On Deck – Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – Long Beach, California – Sunday, April 13
