Homestead, FL – After coming off a podium finish in Round 1 of the Trans Am Championship at Sebring, a 9th place finish at Homestead-Miami was not the result the Ruman Racing team was hoping for.
In their first appearance at Homestead since 1998, beautiful weather greeted the Series back with open arms. However, the sunny South Florida weekend helped make for hot and slippery track conditions for the Trans Am drivers. Amy Ruman started with decent practice sessions placing 7th in the combined grid. Ruman saw improvement in her times in the Saturday qualifying session, moving her up to 5th for the start of Sunday’s race. The Trans Am grid was tight all weekend, and in qualifying first though sixth were within a second of each other.
It was 85 degrees with the track temperatures showing 105 the start of the 100.395 mile/46-lap race on Sunday. Ruman drove the No. 23 McNichols Co. Chevrolet Corvette to another great start, moving up to 4th past Baucom into turn one. The top four were nose to tail, Lopez and Peterson dueling it out for first and second, while Ebben and Ruman were challenging.
On lap 13, Ruman was challenged by Gregg, who overtook her for 4th place. Despite a promising race run, a few laps later Ruman had a problem under hard braking and a rear wheel hop caused her to spin. She quickly tried to get the car re-fired, but unfortunately she dropped to 12th place. Ruman persevered, and made her way back through some of the pack to finish 9th.
“What a frustrating day for the team,” exclaimed Ruman. “I had a really good start and I was settling in to the grove. It was really weird, the next thing I knew I was braking hard and the rear wheel hop got out of control. It was my own fault, I had dialed in a bit too much brake to the rear on the previous lap. I felt bad for my crew, they worked so hard these past two races. We will regroup for Atlanta and look to improve there.”
Ruman lost some ground in the championship hunt this weekend and is now sitting forth in the standings, 17 points shy of first.
