Kansas City, Kan. (16 August 2013) – It may have been a brand new track for Rum Bum Racing as GRAND-AM stages its debut race at Kansas Speedway on Saturday, but it was another familiar result for the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche in Friday evening’s 15-minute qualifying session.
Fresh from a race-winning weekend at Road America, Nick Longhi took third on the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge grid.
The event weekend marks the first race for GRAND-AM at the track which utilizes both the oval and road course portions of the circuit. Longhi will open the 2.5-hour race at the controls of the No. 13 Rum Bum Porsche machine before turning the car over to co-driver Matt Plumb to take to the finish as the duo targets a second consecutive victory after having won the previous event held at Road America last weekend.
Longhi’s fast lap time of 1:21.442-seconds around the 2.37-mile roval configuration marks his 16th consecutive top-10 start for Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing.
Rum Bum Racing worked to dial in the car during both Thursday’s test day and Friday’s first official practice in which the team was 10th quick. The Rum Bum squad opted to sit out the second round of practice as both drivers were happy with the handling of the car and felt well-prepared for the evening’s qualifying session.
“We didn’t take the car out during the second session because we were pretty happy with it,” offered Longhi following the qualifying run. “(Crew chief) Joe Varde and the crew did just a fantastic job getting the car ready for this track. It’s part oval, part road course and extremely difficult to get a handle on but Joe Varde just gets it right. We didn’t do a lot of adjusting on the car because Joe just gets it right. The track is a lot of fun. I like the oval – personally I think it’s fun to see how fast you can go on the banking. Our number one priority is scoring points, but having said that, that was our number one priority at Road America too and we still won. We have to be careful and err on the side of caution and just have a good race.”
The team sits at the top of the championships standings with a 54-point advantage and will look to extend their championship lead with another strong outing in Saturday’s SFP Grand Prix at Kansas Speedway.
The race is set to go green at 4:00 PM (ET) on Saturday. Live timing and scoring can be followed at www.grand-am.com. FOX Sports 1 will broadcast the event Sunday, August 25 at 3:00 PM (ET).
