Rum Bum Racing Takes Fifth at Homestead Miami Speedway

Rum Bum Racing Takes Fifth at Homestead Miami Speedway

HOMESTEAD, Florida, 5 March – Looking for a remarkable fourth in a row, Rum Bum Racing hoped for a win in their home race.

Instead, they came away with a healthy haul of points by finishing in fifth place in the GRAND-AM Continental Sports Car Challenge – Kia 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. As a result, drivers Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi leave sharing second overall, only four points adrift of the lead.

Longhi started the twilight-ending race on the pole, from where he easily established a gap over the pursuing field. Yet each time, Longhi was foiled by full course cautions that dominated the first 45 minutes of the two and a half hour race. He finally pitted from the lead with one hour and forty-five minutes remaining to hand over to Plumb while the crew fitted four new Continental Tires and filled up with Sunoco race fuel.

“Especially because of all the caution periods, I was being very careful with the tires,” said Longhi. “Our strategy was continually adapting to the race and I wasn’t sure how long I would stay out before pitting for the first time. I just have to say though that the car in the opening laps was simply perfect. I was saving the car but holding on to the lead and the car felt great.”

After the hand-over, Plumb emerged from the pits in 20th place, and as has been the norm, he soon began cutting his way back through the field. With an hour and half left in the race, Plumb had climbed to 15th place. A little over thirty minutes later, he had climbed into a podium position before having to make his final visit to the pits under green.

Nevertheless, Plumb was in 12th place when he returned to the track. The race had only 40 minutes to go, and again, Plumb set out to make his way to the front. However this time, a long stretch of green flag running had spread the field enough to make matters more difficult. Moreover, the No.13 Rum Bum machine was suffering from an occasional overheating issue, giving Plumb pause as he worked to make sure he didn’t compromise the car.

But still never giving in, Plumb managed to work his way to fifth position where he ended the race.

“As the race went on, the car didn’t have enough pace to track the leaders down on that long green stretch,” said Plumb as he greeted the large group of Rum Bum Racing supporters on hand for the event. “We’ll go back and study the data to see what we can learn,” said Plumb. “But, as I said before the weekend, our overall objective is to score points, as many as possible, in every race with a view toward the championship. This is obviously going to be a very competitive year, so we can’t afford to leave points on the table. A podium would have been nicer, but we’ll take a top-five in a race (at Homestead-Miami Speedway) that is always very hard. We were hoping to bring a win at home for Mr. Bacardi, but hopefully we’ll have a bigger prize at the end of the year.”

The Rum Bum Racing squad now has just over a month to prepare for the next round at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. The race telecast of the Kia 200 airs on SPEED, March 19th.

-ends

Matt Cleary
Sunday Group Management
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http://www.sundaymanagement.com
317.908.2975 (m)


Based in Indianapolis, Sunday Group Management is a leading motorsports management and communications consulting firm.

Sunday Group Management works with clients in a variety of motorsports categories, including NASCAR Sprint Cup driver AJ Allmendinger, Riley Technologies, GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series organization Michael Shank Racing, Continental Tire, and several teams and drivers in Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competition.

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