Rum Bum Racing Faces Disappointment in New Jersey

Millville, N.J. (12 May 2012) – After entering the weekend atop the points standings, Rum Bum Racing was looking to keep up the momentum of a two-race win streak in Round 4 of the 2012 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge championship. But after hitting all the marks perfectly in the team’s race plan, the effort came up short as the new Porsche machine suffered a race-ending mechanical failure before the mid-point of the 2.5-hour race.

Nick Longhi started the race from sixth on the 58-car combined-class grid, and moved directly up to third on the opening lap.

“I had scouted the outside line on the reconnaissance laps, and I knew that there was enough grip to get the braking done there if I needed to,” said Longhi. “I just stayed on the outside on the start and it worked perfectly–I thought I was going to have to give up the spot but I don’t think the Camaro got a good start so we were right up to third.”

Longhi was part of the lead pack, which stretched the advantage in the early laps before a full course caution brought Longhi into pit lane to turn the controls over to Matt Plumb, who returned to the field in 19th.

Plumb, keeping to the playbook, proceeded to charge forward and was quickly back into the top-10. But that forward progress was slowed to a disappointing halt after the No. 13 lost power and stopped on the side of the track.

“I felt us lose a little bit of pace, and then we were just dead in the water,” lamented Plumb, who had played host to a huge crowd of friends and family including his mother on the Mother’s Day weekend at his home race track. “I hate it for Luis (Bacardi) to not bring home a result that showed really what we were capable of. This is going to make for a big hill to climb in the points, but we’ll just put our heads down and focus on winning at Mid-Ohio again just like we did last year and then fighting our way back.”

The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series next travels to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the EMCO Gears Classic June 8-9.

The B+ Heroes 200 presented by BCKSTGR will be televised May 26 at 2:00 PM (ET) on SPEED.