Rum Bum Gears Up for the Biggest Race of the Season

Letting off steam by goofing off. Bailey Whitaker shows us how much he looks like his bike.

If Rumbum Racer, Shawn Gann, had any advice for people taking road trips, it's this – don't EVER travel with somebody when there's no food in the vehicle. At least save some rations for yourself, because the ravenous clan will surely devour the rest.  Case in point: The rapidly disappearing $400 worth of food that Gann's Mom (aka. Team Mom to the Rum Bum Racing) picked up from WalMart before the trek from Las Vegas to Pomona, CA for The Big One, The NHRA Full Throttle Series Finals.

According to Gann, the stress of travel – food sharing included – far exceeds the stress of the big race.  For the last eight months, he's traveled all over the country, away from his wife and little boys, sometimes for over a month at a time. Why? "The end result is that I get to race," says Gann. The next three days (four, if he makes it to the final eliminations), Gann will spend performing at the culmination of his season on the Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California.

With him, Bailey Whitaker, his Rum Bum Racing teammate, will also put petal to the metal. The Rum Bum Race Team Crew Chief, Blake Gann, continuously applauds Whitaker for his vast improvements during the course of this season – his first in pro stock motorcycle drag racing. Since the end of the last race in Vegas, the crew has been on the job to ship in the necessary parts and repair his motors that busted last weekend. Though Whitaker is not in the running for NHRA victory (only the top seeded racers do), he's certainly going to hit the pavement this weekend in Pomona for a big finish to his season.

As for Gann, he's staying calm and trying not to psych himself out before the big dance. Most of all, he's happy in disposition and has a prop to prove it: a plastic helmet from Target formed to look like the hero the film Transformers, Bumblebee. The helmet, and the happy-go-lucky nature, leaves immediately as he hits the start line, though. He's on point when he's ready to roll – and even more so for the finals – but his consistent improvements though the season keep him confident. "It's like I gained power almost every race," he said. "If I know every event I'm picking up power, then I want the events to keep coming 'cause I just get faster and faster. I know that this race I'll be faster than I was last race."

Gann first hit the Pomona track with during last year's finals where he ran a 7.08. He's determined to at least match, if not blow his old time out of the water. But conditions in the chaparral terrain in Pomona can be tricky, so he's prepared to deal with whatever bad air (meaning, slower times) Mother Nature throws at him. To Gann, it's not about taking home the gold every race, just doing what he loves the best he knows how. "We do what we do on the level we do it and with the seriousness that we do it, because that's who we are," he explained. "We do this to be who we are."

Stay tuned to Rum Bum all weekend for the latest on the NHRA Finals.