Rum Bum Slips, But Doesn't Fall
You know you’re more than a decent drag racer if your bike shuts off 300 feet before the finish line and you still rank 8th in the world finals. Rumbum Racer, Shawn Gann, is that racer – and he’s light-years beyond a decent drag racer, as he proved again today. Though a couple missteps for the Rumbum Race Team, both Gann, and teammate, Bailey Whitaker, still performed plenty worthy of the NHRA Finals.
Friday the 13th, also Day #2 of the world finals at the Pomona Raceway, Gann conquered the stigma of the day by achieving the fastest reaction times of all his 23 opponents. However, some bad luck did descend upon him when his crank sensor busted with 320 feet left in the race… and shut his motor off. “The crank sensor is what tells the motor to run,” Gann explained, and apparently his speed of 188mph was a little more than the device could handle. Regardless, his time of 7.021 was still good enough for Gann to stay secure in the Top 10.
Whitaker took to the track with another impressive run for a first timer to the NHRA finals. His time of 7.116 and speed of 183mph placed him 15th in the ranks – like Gann, a couple spots lower than Day #1 – so for the duration of the evening, Whitaker is in the pits with the crew as they change sprockets and prepare the bike for the potentially detrimental air for Saturday.
Tomorrow, the Rumbum Racers have two qualifiers before the final eliminations of the season on Sunday. Churck Adkins, a one-man-pit-crew and a fixture of the Rumbum Race Team (and the Gann’s shop for over four years), is quite confident in Saturday's performances. “We think they’ll both go faster tomorrow,” Adkins said. And no, he says that Gann won’t move up enough in the ranks to win the top spot, but he may be able to move up one place from 8th to 7th. Not only do you get more money with every spot you move up, but next season, you get a parking spot for your trailer that’s closer to the track! (In the life of a constantly traveling racer, that counts for a lot.)
For now, Gann’s trying to lay low and trying to rest up after a serving of tainted diver scallops tugged at his gut for the last few days. He tried to stomach some salmon at Chile’s – one of his favorite eateries on the road (and, thus, where his fans automatically flock) – and then headed back to his trailer to make it a Blockbuster night. But don’t expect Gann to pick up X-Men: Origins, Wolverine or Transformers II. In a seemingly incongruous choice for a pro stock motorcycle drag racer, Gann ping-ponged between romantic comedies, The Proposal and a flick with Renee Zellweger until he decided on Katherine Heigl’s film, The Ugly Truth. At any given time you can expect the unexpected with this Rum Bum Racer, but tomorrow, expect he’ll be on fire!
Stay tuned for his consensus on the flik, and of course, Day #3 of the finals! Go Team!
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