Munroe Falls, Ohio – The sunshine state has been shining on Amy Ruman and her team for the last three Trans Am races, as Ruman emerged victorious again in yesterday’s Round 2 of the Trans Am Championship tour at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Ruman made it a winning streak with three wins in a row – capturing the 2014 season finale at Daytona and the 2015 season opener at Sebring and now another win at Homestead-Miami.
It was hot all weekend long as temperatures reached the upper 80’s yet feeling like 90+ degrees on race day, which made for a slick race surface and intense cockpit temps for the drivers. After a tight “fast five qualifying” round on Friday afternoon, in only her second time at Homestead, Ruman took the 3rd place slot on the starting grid for Sunday’s race behind Lopez and Gregg, with Peterson and Baucom rounding out the top five.
The race start was smooth into turn 1 and it was Lopez, Gregg, Ruman, Peterson, and Baucom running nose to tail. On lap 6 Ruman passed Gregg for second place in the oval and tried to stick with Lopez. On lap 20 Lopez’s Corvette lost a right rear tire sending him into the wall on the exit of the oval heading onto the front straight. As the course fell under caution, Ruman slotted into first, with Baucom and Barcenas rounding out the top 3. On the restart, Barcenas had problems sending him off course and the caution came out again, with Ebben now in third. Ruman had another solid restart staying out in front, with Baucom coming on strong and Ruman maintaining a 1.5-2.0 second lead. Despite late race efforts pressuring Ruman a few times, Baucom lost oil pressure in the last turn costing him a 2nd place finish, as Ruman cruised to take the checkered followed by Ebben and Fix as Baucom coasted to fourth.
“Today was all about patience and perseverance,” said Ruman. “This No. 23 McNichols Co. Chevrolet Corvette was awesome today, the guys, my crew, I couldn’t do this without my parents, Dave, Mike, Bryan, Eric and Jerry… my crew made this win happen. And without McNichols Company, none of this possible. They got us this win today. RJ was the guy to beat today and unfortunately he had a tire issue. We just wanted to be patient and consistent throughout the race, Baucom poured it on in the end but we knew he was there. I couldn’t be happier, I’m not going to take anything for granted, we’re scraping for every point we can get and we’re going to keep taking this one race at a time and one podium at a time.”
Ruman makes it seven career Trans Am victories this weekend and remains first in the Championship points standings heading to Round 3 at Road Atlanta May 9th.
