Munroe Falls, OH – Amy Ruman scored her first top five finish of the season in the #23 McNichols Co./Goodyear/Cenweld Chevrolet Corvette during the SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Series opener at New Jersey Motorsports Park this past weekend.
After a busy weekend of traveling to and from New Jersey two times in 4 days and missing both practice runs on Saturday (due to a prior family commitment), Ruman qualified for the race in 6th place in the 17-car combined class grid, Trans-Am and Trans-am Vintage, for the 40-lap, 90-mile race on Sunday afternoon.
It was a sunny, but windy 60 degree race day. Ruman took the green and was off to battle with Simon Gregg. Ruman passed Gregg on lap 3 and started closing in on 4th place car Daniel Ramoutarsingh. On lap 13 Ruman got loose coming out of turn 4, and did a ½ spin allowing Joey Scarallo to get by. Ruman went to work and closed the gap and the two battled it out. Ruman passed Scarallo three laps later on lap 16, moving her back into 5th place. A full course caution came out on lap 25 for debris and bunched the field up. After the lap 27 restart, Ruman felt she had a shot at fourth again, but was unable to pass Ramoutarsingh to get it done. Drissi scored the NJMP win followed by RJ Lopez in 2nd, Tony Ave in 3rd, Daniel Ramoutarsingh in 4th, and Ruman in 5th.
“I am pleased with my finish this weekend,” stated Ruman. “I knew it was going to be a bit hectic going into the weekend, but I knew I could handle it. Since this was my first time at NJMP, I focused on quickly learning the track and car set-up. With such little track time, I think we did really well by starting the year off in the top five. I liked running on the Thunderbolt course.”
This was Ruman’s fifth top five finish in her Trans-Am career. The team is working diligently to prepare the car for some upcoming races at the end of May. Ruman is currently in 5th place in the SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Championship points standings.
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