Rum Bum Racing Leads BMW Brigade at Daytona

26 January, 2012–Daytona Beach, FL – With wins and podium finishes, Rum Bum Racing played a key role in scoring the Manufacturer Championship for BMW in 2010 and 2011, and got the 2012 GRAND-AM season off to a similar start as the team scored the best grid spot for Friday’s BMW Performance 200 of all the BMW M3 runners.

The No. 13 Rum Bum Racing BMW piloted by Nick Longhi and Matt Plumb will start the  opening round of the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge championship from eighth on the grid.

Having run among the top-four throughout the day’s practice sessions, the Rum Bum squad was on pace to put the No. 13 at the front of the 40-car Grand Sport field, but two prolonged caution periods significantly limited the amount of time left in the session to put down a fast lap. With only one chance at a flying lap, Longhi wheeled the BMW around the 3.56-mile speedway road course, only to catch traffic and have his lap slowed by just a few crucial 10ths of a second.

“On the first green, the car was pretty good and I had one BMW behind me and I thought we were okay, but then there was an immediate black flag right away and then on the way back out I caught one Mustang right away,” said Longhi of the qualifying run. “The second time I tried to time the draft to not catch him but he must have done something in the chicane where I had a huge run on him so it put me up next to him going into one and he smartly stayed to the inside and I was on the outside and that made for a substantially longer lap time and then there was another black flag. He got the pole, I didn’t. Once I was outside of him I was way offline so I lost a couple tenths of a second there.”

While Longhi had been hoping to make more of the abbreviated session, Rum Bum Racing enters the race with the confidence that comes with having dominated the previous two Daytona events, taking the trip to victory lane in both 2010 and 2011 and will aim for a third straight victory as Longhi opens the 2.5-hour race before handing the driving duties over to Plumb who will take the No. 13 BMW to the checkered flag.

“It’s going to be a wild show tomorrow because there is so much traffic,” added Longhi. “The key for me at this point is do what I’m supposed to do which is keep it out of trouble, keep it up near the front and wait to get Matt in the car and let Joe (Varde) do the strategy.”

The BMW Performance 200 starts at 1:30 PM (ET) on Friday. Live timing and scoring can be followed at www.grand-am.com.

SPEED will televise the event on February 4 at 12:00 PM (ET).