RACE: Ruman Racing June Sprints race notes

AMY RUMAN QUALIFIES 5TH AND FINISHES 8TH AT SCCA JUNE SPRINTS NATIONAL AT ROAD AMERICA

Munroe Falls, OH - Amy Ruman and the Ruman Racing team competed in their first appearance at Road America's Piggly Wiggly June Sprints SCCA National in Elkhart Lake, WI, this past weekend. The weather was beautiful and fortunately a sudden threatening rain shower held off for Sunday's race.

Ruman qualified the McNichols/Goodyear Corvette in 5th in a field of 29 GT-1 cars. She had a good start and settled into 5th for the first few laps. Then came a battle between Ruman, Todd Harris (4th), and Simon Gregg (3rd) for the next two laps. Harris got by Gregg first then Ruman passed Gregg in turn 5 and moved into 4th. It was during this part of the race that Ruman ran the 4th overall fastest time of the race. Ruman then started to chase down Harris and closed the gap to under a second when something went wrong with 5 laps to go in the 15 lap (60 miles) race.

Ruman radioed the crew and told them there was a problem with the steering of the car. Just then a full course yellow flag came out as another competitor crashed hard into the wall on the back straight. He was okay, but officials brought the field to pit lane under a black flag during the clean up. After a 10-15 minute wait, during which the rules forbid crews to work on the cars, the field was sent back out with 4 laps remaining. Ruman knew at this point there was something amiss with the car, but what it was and how serious was unclear, so the team made the decision to stay out and finish the race.

As the field came around for the restart Ruman had a great jump and passed Harris into turn one for 3rd place. There was only one big problem...the car darted left to right in the brake zone as Ruman tried to control the steering! At this point, she tried to hold on and not get into anyone or a wall. While the effort to stay on track was successful, she unfortunately could not run as fast as before and started dropping places during the last 3 laps. Ruman was still able to finish in 8th place. After the race, the crew checked out the car and found the left front suspension's upper control arm had snapped in half!

"What a race! The McNichols/Goodyear Corvette was fantastic in qualifying and in the race. If it wasn't for the upper control arm breaking with 5 laps to go, I think I could have held on to 3rd place in the end. It was a wild ride for those last few laps, but given the circumstances, I was really happy to finish in the top 10," exclaimed Ruman. "Road America is a super track to run on, the fans were great, and I am really glad I got a chance to compete in the June Sprints."

Next up: July 13 - Amy Ruman in GT-1 and Niki Ruman in SRF SCCA National at Watkins Glen, NY

-credit: rumanracing.com