Munroe Falls, Ohio – After a great start to the weekend at Road Atlanta, Ruman fell just shy of the podium in the 100-Mile Trans Am race sponsored by Luna-C Clothing.
It was a warm Georgia weekend, and Ruman was running quickly right out of the box. Ruman and Doug Peterson were neck and neck all weekend, trading top spots in the practice sessions. The pair continued a qualifying shootout show for the fans, which had Ruman sitting on the pole until Peterson snuck under her time on the last lap of the session by 2-tenths of a second!
“Man was I disappointed when Doug bumped me off the pole…it’s like the third or fourth time he has done that to me in the past year!” commented Ruman. “It was a great show though, and we had a lot of fun out there.”
Ruman would start the race on the outside of the front row. The race was off to a great start with Ruman in second and the top three cars running nose to tail for nearly half the race. Slightly after mid-way, the No. 23 McNichols Co. Corvette encountered a problem with lapped traffic, causing a quick off and on, dropping her to third. Shortly after, a restart gave promise, but a spin coming out of turn one dropped Ruman to the back of the pack. She continued to fight hard, moving her way back through the field. After another restart, Ruman was able to get by Gregg moving her to fourth, then a last lap effort saw her battling for the podium again. Ruman and Pintaric had some side-by-side racing all the way through the last lap, with Pintaric just able to hold her off at the checkered.
“That was a challenging race, regrettably, things happen out of our control sometimes. It was a shame, we had a really fast car and we were right there to defiantly get a podium, if not a win. I have to thank my crew this weekend for working so hard once again, we had a really tight schedule, but they gave me a fast car every session!” stated Ruman.
Ruman slipped a position in the championship hunt this weekend; she is currently now fifth in the standings. Positions 2nd through 5th are neck and neck with Gregg at 71, Ebben at 70, Baucom at 69, and Ruman at 67 points.