Ruman leads practice session with time of 2:08.297 at Road America

 

After an unfortunate collision at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Ruman’s #23 McNichols Company Chevrolet Corvette was sidelined for the next event, forcing Ruman Racing to dust off their back-up car.  And while Ruman put in a solid showing, the result was not the habitual podium placement as she had experienced in 2012. 

 

The Ruman Racing team worked to get the main #23 back up to speed and entered it in round four at Watkins Glen.  Unfortunately, as with any major reconstruction, some kinks remained.

 

Now, finally, if this first practice session at Road America is any sign of what is to come, Ruman Racing’s work is paying off. 

 

Amy and the #23 McNichols machine took P1 in the official practice session with a fast lap of 2:08.297, beating out defending TA Champion Simon Gregg, driver of the #1 Gregg Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette, and current points leader Doug Peterson, driver of the #87 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet Corvette, who hold P2 and P3 in the session, respectively.  Stretch won the 2012 race here at Road America as well.  

 

“We’re real happy about that my guys have worked and worked and worked tirelessly to get us back to where we need to be,” Ruman said.  “Unfortunately we’ve had a couple bad weekends since the crash at Mosport and just oddball things, like at Watkins Glen when a rotor broke in the race—that was really disappointing.  It’s great finally be performing like we should and I can thank the team for that.”  

 

In TA2, two-time defending Champion Bob Stretch put in the fast lap for the class with a 2:18.263.  Stretch and the #98 Wheels America/Fix Rim Mobile Chevrolet Camaro beat out rookie Robert Huffmaster, in the #27 Kryderacing/VirSec Chevrolet Camaro, and points leader Cameron Lawrence, driver of the #11 Ctek/Motorstate/NorthStar Battery, who rounded out the top three for the class.

 

In Trans Am’s production class, TA3, the #43 Mills Racing BMW M3 of Mickey Mills led the way with a time of 2:30.183.  Following Mills was the #37 JOMAC Bodies and Cranes/Deb’s Peppers Ford Mustang of Rich Jones with a time of 2:31.853 and defending TA3 Champion Chuck Cassaro in the #76 Cassaro Enterprises/StackData/Aeromotive/Metallica Ford Mustang who logged a time of 2:32.280.

 

Trans Am will take to the legendary Road America course tomorrow morning at 10:10 a.m. CST for qualifying and the 100 mile Trans Am race at 5:45 p.m. CST as they share the track with ARCA and NASCAR Nationwide. 

 

As always, keep up with the action at www.gotransam.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gotransam and on Twitter at @gotransam.