Orlando, Fla. (27 December 2012) – Rum Bum is Back!
After scoring five wins on the way to the 2012 GRAND-AM Team Championship, Rum Bum Racing will look to defend the Championship with another strong run in the 2013 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
The team, which debuted at Daytona with a big win for drivers Gian Bacardi and Matt Plumb in the team’s first race in 2010, will see Plumb once again joined by Nick Longhi as his co-driver. The duo will co-drive in their third consecutive year together as they return to the No. 13 Rum Bum Porsche.
The Joe Varde-led squad claimed the GS championship crown last year after an incredible season that saw Rum Bum Racing win a remarkable five of the season’s 10 races, score a pole position, lead 247 laps, and run out front in eight of the 10 races of the year. After a pair of setbacks early in the season, Rum Bum Racing staged a dramatic rally in the final races to close the year out on top with a victory at Lime Rock Park.
The team, which also just announced that it will debut in the Rolex 24 At Daytona with Audi Sport customer racing, fully expects to deliver another year of positive performances, but also anticipates that the deep talent in the GS field will make the GRAND-AM competition even tougher this year.
“The key to 2013 is going to be consistency and avoiding any kind of mistakes,” offered Plumb, who has shown strength in his dual role as both driver and team manager. “We were fortunate to win so many races in 2012, but I think that at this level of competition it will be hard to match that next year. Every team has continued to raise their game, and things will get even tighter in 2013. In 2012 we were quick, but more importantly we made no mistakes as far as strategy, pit work, and preparation. This made my job as a driver that much easier because all I had to do was not screw it up!”
The team effort that goes into the Rum Bum Racing campaign was reflected in the consistently strong pace that the team demonstrated, even as the group made the mid-season switch to a Porsche.
“As satisfying as it was to complete the mission of bringing Luis Bacardi a GRAND-AM Championship, we are all looking to build on that with another strong year in 2013,” said Longhi, who has proven potent as a qualifier having started in the top-10 in every race but one last year.
“This is an incredibly motivated group. We are fortunate to have the support of Luis Bacardi, and it feels like an all-star team that he has put together. It’s not often that you have this kind of championship-caliber group all pushing in the same direction. We know that it will take all of our effort to come back and defend this championship, but it’s something everyone is really looking forward to.”
“This season, I think we will see even more improvement from everyone on consistency and reliability,” offered Plumb as he anticipates the upcoming GRAND-AM season. “As much of a nail-biter that the championship fight was this year, I think the fans are going to see even better battles in the races next year and we are working every day to be there to fight for it again in 2013.”
GRAND-AM will stage an 11-race schedule for the highly popular series, which marks the growth of one more race event over the 2012 season. With a return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and first-ever visits to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, an oval-based road circuit in Kansas, and a debut event at Road Atlanta, the schedule is once again packed with highlight events for the fans and teams alike.
The year will open in January at the team’s home track of Daytona International Speedway and close in September at Plumb and Longhi’s adopted home track of Lime Rock Park just as it did last year.
Rum Bum has traditionally been strong at the famed Daytona oval located just an hour northeast of the team’s Orlando-based race shop. The group burst onto the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge scene scoring victory at the track in their 2010 debut and then following up that effort by claiming the Daytona pole and a repeat win in 2011. Rum Bum finished fifth in last year’s event – the first of their seven top-five results of the year.
The 2013 season will open with the Daytona 200 at Daytona International Speedway on January 25th. SPEED coverage of the race will be announced in the coming weeks.
