Fifth on Watkins Glen Grid

© Wes Duenkel

Rum Bum Racing returned to GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competition for the Continental Tire 150 at Watkins Glen International just days after winning its second race of the season at Lime Rock Park. Riding that wave of momentum, Nick Longhi and Matt Plumb were hoping to score a strong spot on the mixed Grand Sports and Street Tuner grid at the historic track.

Longhi took controls of the No. 13 BMW M3 for the 15-minute qualifying session and secured fifth place on the 55+ combined class grid to start from the third row. The result marks the fourth top-five and fifth top-10 starting position of the season for Rum Bum Racing.

“The car was better than it’s been, it just didn’t come together and I’m not sure why,” said Longhi, who has habitually put the car up front in qualifying and again at race time. “I had a good lap going and for some reason the time just doesn’t show how quick the car is. We’ll go through the data and see, but fifth is still a decent place for us. It’s a long race and I know we just have to be smart out there and put Matt in a position to close just like he did last weekend.”

Rum Bum continued to improve the BMW throughout the day having completed the first practice 13th and the second practice eighth before grabbing another top-five qualifying result.

“There are a lot of Camaros up front so they’ve certainly found something this weekend,” offered Plumb. “So there is no question, it will be close again in the race but we will just stick to our plan and look to execute like we did at Lime Rock and hopefully be back on the podium.”

Longhi and Plumb will participate in a final practice session prior to the start of the Continental Tire 150 which begins at 6:00 PM (ET). SPEED will carry coverage of the event on June 12 at 5:00 PM (ET) on SPEED.