On Your Mark, Get Set...

© Matt Plumb

The new BMW M3 e92. Even better than the old M3.

A spectrum of pro racecar drivers convene at the legendary Daytona International Speedway this weekend for a GRAND-AM kick off event commemorating one of the most noted race series on the professional circuit. Of them, Rum Bum Racer Gian Bacardi will join the ranks donning his new – and well-earned – professional driving license. This weekend he'll share the track with some of the greatest drivers in the world.

And it's not something he's taking lightly. “This is a huge step at the beginning of my career,” says Bacardi. “I am thankful it is with an organization like GRAND-AM, which attracts some of the best talent in sports car racing today.”

The event marks the official start of the The GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. Bacardi, with his co-driver and coach of the last year, 10-year veteran driver, Matt Plumb, will take to the prestigious track with their valiant white steed – a newly purchased 2010 E92 BMW M3 tattooed Rumbum style.

A Distinctive Series with a Distinctive Flavor

According to GRAND-AM’s PR Manager, J.J. O’Malley, GRAND-AM (functioning under the NASCAR framework) is the sanctioning body for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, a series of 2.5-hour, or 200 to 250-mile, endurance races at the top stadium road race courses in the country. In the next eight months, the Rum Bum Race team will compete in Daytona, Miami-Homestead, Barber, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, and more.

The title of this weekend’s kick-off event at Daytona – Roar Before the Rolex 24 – actually names GRAND-AM’s top tier event, the Rolex Sports Car Series. The "Roar Before," however, is a series of practice races Friday through Sunday, in which all cars competing in the Rolex Series and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge will have several scheduled practice hours on the track daily. Of course, Plumb and Bacardi will be there, getting in their coveted practice time before the January 29 event.

They'll be racing against drivers that span the pro racing spectrum. According to O’Malley, racers vary from the “young chargers” like Bacardi, to “not-so-old veterans” like Plumb (who, at 30, may prefer to drop the “so”), and pros who have been racing for decades. The Test Days at Daytona beg drivers to seize the opportunity to size up the competition.

When races begin at the end of the month, the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge will be the “featured support event” (as per the GRAND-AM website) for the Rolex Series. Some could read “featured support event” to mean “opening act” like at a concert, Plumb says, but he adds that the time slot should not diminish its importance. The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge isn’t so much of a little brother series to GRAND-AM’s Rolex Series; rather, it's a distinct racing series altogether with different rules and different machines.

O’Malley explains that unlike the purpose-built Daytona Prototypes and GTs manufactured for the Rolex Series, machines competing the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge are essentially highly modified showroom cars that you could try to pass on the freeway. (Whether or not you could, of course, is an entirely different story.)

A Little Car Talk

The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge vehicles fall into two classes – the GS (Grand Sport) and the ST (Street Tuner). Bacardi and Plumb will race in the GS class, against other exotic international machines like Porches and the Nissan 350z and also domestic models like Camaro and Dodge Challengers. The GS class cars are heavier and carry more horsepower than the ST class, which features a variety of high performing vehicles from Mazda, Chevy, Dodge, Mini Cooper, Acura, and BMW. As the title sponsor reminds, all competitors run on Continental ExtremeContact Tires.

As Bacardi transitions from amateur to professional driving status, it’s fitting his race vehicle (formerly the blue E42 BMW M3) would get upgraded as well. He did, however, need to limit the modifications according to GRAND-AM’s regulations. The 2010 E92 BMW M3 has been stripped of most of its interior to make it as light as possible – though it still weighs around a ton and a half. The team also installed a roll cage and race seat for safety. (Safety, sure… but that slick racecar look is an added plus.) Even with other pro modifications to increase efficiency, the Bimmer is still considered street legal. The engine still hits a little over 400 horses, just as would any comparable M3 model on the road.

Revving Up

In preparation for the first race of his professional career at the prestigious Daytona Raceway, Bacardi says he has been “working out to prepare physically and using an iRacing simulator to keep [him] sharp [when] away from the track.”  But as his coach reminds, every move in his amateur career has prepared him for his first pro race. “Through the course of our training together,” he says, “I’ve not only structured it to get him up to speed racing, but also to get him a pro license.”

Though Plumb has more years behind the wheel than his co-driver, he reinforces the fact that Bacardi is just as responsible for the success of their upcoming races as he. And the new pro racer knows it.

“There will be an incredible amount of information that I will need to process this year,” Bacardi says. “I have been to most of the circuits with my coach in preparation, which helps. However, the level of competition is going to be much higher and room for mistakes much lower. Staying focused on and off the track will be tough. Everything will be overwhelming. I have a great crew and co-driver which will definitely help in making this process easier.”

Said crew was hand-picked by Plumb and, like the new car, and new pro license, are also a recent addition to Rum Bum Racing 2.0. This weekend of upcoming practice runs, then, are crucial to lubricating the gears, so to speak – practicing their pit stops, driver changes, and course runs.

Though the team is certainly upgraded, says Plumb, the “newness” of the team doesn’t necessarily stack the odds in their favor. Could they get tagged the underdog? Perhaps. But so what? That just makes it more fun when they win.