Lexington, Ohio (15 June 2013) – Sometimes all you need is a little bit of luck and that’s exactly what Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing got in Saturday’s Diamond Cellar Classic as the team scored lucky number win 13  in the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche.

The usual shrewd strategy from the Rum Bum team as well as perfect driving by drivers Nick Longhi and Matt Plumb propelled the No. 13 machine to the front of the 56-car combined class GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge field. But as fuel strategy came into play late in the race, it was a lucky full course caution with under 10 minutes remaining that sealed the deal for Rum Bum Racing to take their second win of the season.

The result marked a return trip to the Mid-Ohio podium as Plumb and Longhi finished third in last year’s event on their way to claiming the 2012  GRAND-AM Team Championship Title.

Longhi opened the race from the fourth row after having qualified the No. 13 Porsche eighth on the grid. He ran a very strong opening stint – moving up to fifth on just the first lap. He continued to move his way forward to run as high as second before a brilliant call from the Joe Varde-led Rum Bum squad saw the No. 13 take its first pit stop immediately prior to a full course caution about an hour into the race.

“The first time I got in the car was yesterday and I actually, quite frankly was feeling terrible,” said Longhi. “I had a long travel day on Thursday and missed the promoter test day and had a migraine yesterday so definitely wasn’t feeling on top of it and the car was new to me. But this morning I woke up feeling better. This is a strong team. I knew on the start I had to make up for lost time and I got a couple of guys, which was great. It just went really well. We also had a bit of a radio issue, but fundamentally we made the right call at the right time to pit and we were able to get in at the right time.”

A quick, efficient pit stop by the Rum Bum crew saw Plumb return to the track sixth in the order for the restart, and he wasted no time in moving forward, making it look easy as he maneuvered his way up into the second position in just a matter of laps. When the third of four cautions was displayed on Lap 50 with about 45 minutes remaining in the race, the leader headed down pit lane, but the Rum Bum team took a gamble and kept the No. 13 Porsche out on track in hopes that another full course caution would give them the necessary fuel mileage to make it to the end.

Plumb restarted at the point and led for 31 laps defending against the hard charging No. 96 BMW of Bill Auberlen. As the laps waned, so did the fuel in the No. 13 machine. The team knew it would be very close on fuel in order to make it to the finish, but with less than 10 minutes remaining in the race, a full course caution was displayed and the Rum Bum team breathed a collective sigh of relief – knowing that Plumb would indeed make it to the checkered flag on the amount of fuel in the car.

However, the caution also set up a two-lap dash to the finish with a bevy of hungry GS machines also pursuing the victory behind the No. 13 Rum Bum Porsche. But Plumb once again kept his cool behind the wheel as he brought the No. 13 Porsche across the finish line first with a .452-second advantage.

“It was perfect! We got so lucky there at the end,” said Plumb of the win. “Once again ‘Lucky 13’ came through at the end for us. We were spot on from the beginning to the end. We only did one set of Continental Tires and they were just so consistent throughout the whole run.  I’m sorry Luis Bacardi couldn’t be here today but hopefully we did well for him.”

“It’s crazy, congratulations to everybody in this field,” added Longhi. “The level of driving and preparation in the Continental Tire Challenge is fantastic. It’s just such a privilege to be here. With that said, I personally didn’t do what I needed to do in qualifying but hopefully I made up for it today and just handed the car off to Matt in a good position. I’m calm because, I keep saying it over and over again, this is the best team I have ever worked with. It’s mind-blowing.”

The victory extends Rum Bum Racing’s championship lead to an 11-point advantage as the team returns to race action at Watkins Glen in two weeks to defend their 2012 win at the Upstate New York road course.

SPEED will televise the Diamond Cellar Classic event on Sunday, June 23 at 4:00 PM (ET).

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Lexington, Ohio (14 June 2013) — Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing will start the Diamond Cellar Classic from ninth on the grid at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday after Nick Longhi posted a fast lap time of 1:31.297-seconds in qualifying on Friday in the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche..

The result is the fifth top-10 start of the season for Rum Bum Racing, which leads the championship points standings in pursuit of a successful defense of its 2012 GRAND-AM Team Championship title.

Longhi will open the 2.5-hour race from the cockpit before turning the car over to Matt Plumb as the Joe Varde-led squad looks to extend its record of success at the natural terrain circuit, having scored three podium finishes in four visits to Mid-Ohio.

“The car was good, but frankly I just didn’t get everything out of it that I could,” said Longhi. “I’m frustrated–but just with myself. I had a tough travel day yesterday so missed the promoter test. So this was my first day in the car. It should be fine for the race, but I know I left some time out there so I’m hoping to be able to make up some ground in the race tomorrow.”

The team, which staged an open-house for an enthusiastic group of Porsche Club members during the day, showed little sense of concern despite starting from deeper in the field than is the Rum Bum Racing norm. But time and time again, the team has found its way to the front, no matter what the circumstances and that will be the target again on Saturday.

“It is great to be back at the track racing again,” said Plumb as the Continental Tire Challenge resumes after a month-long break in action. “I know Nick wasn’t entirely happy with how qualifying went but we know we’ve got a great car underneath us and there are a lot of laps to run tomorrow. This team is incredible, and we’ve got some guys trying to chase us down in the championship so the big focus is the big picture tomorrow.”

The race will go green at 10:35 AM ET–you can follow the timing at www.grand-am.com.

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Orlando, Fla. (10 June 2013) – When Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing team arrives at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Diamond Cellar Classic & Round 5 of the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, the driving duo of Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi will be targeting the team’s third consecutive Mid-Ohio podium in just four years of racing at the popular 2.258-mile Ohio road course.

Rum Bum Racing won the 2011 season-finale at Mid-Ohio driving the No. 13 BMW M3, but following the season-opening race in 2012, the team made the decision to transition to a Porsche 911 and the decision proved to be a good one. The podium run of third at Mid-Ohio helped Rum Bum Racing secure the 2012 Team Championship title with the Florida-based team also winning five races of the 10-race championship last year.

Longhi, who initially spotted for Rum Bum Racing before moving to the cockpit late in the 2010 season, proved to be a strong addition to the team from day one, playing a key role as the qualifying and starting driver. He qualified fourth in the 2011 Mid-Ohio event and followed that up last year with the second quickest qualifying time to start from the outside pole.

“The Rum Bum guys have worked hard to give us a strong, quick car each and every race weekend and those efforts have certainly shown on the track,” said Longhi. “We’ve had a strong year with solid results and I’m really looking forward to returning to Mid-Ohio. It’s a fun and challenging track and I think we have another good shot for a finish at the front.”

Rum Bum Racing played a crucial role in helping BMW win the 2010 and 2011 GRAND-AM Manufacturer Championships when the team campaigned a BMW M3. In 2012, it was Porsche that was helped most by Rum Bum Racing on the way to the Manufacturers Championship after the team made the switch to Porsche.

Rum Bum Racing has shown that no matter what they are racing, they can take it to the front. What makes this team click? Luis Bacardi assembled a veritable all-star team when he brought Rum Bum Racing together.

“Luis Bacardi and Jennifer Bacardi definitely made all of our dreams come true with the championship,” said Plumb. “There were ups and downs but Rum Bum Racing is always there and is always doing the right thing. They’re always prepared and keep moving forward. “

The team recently tested at the Mid-Ohio facility in preparation for this weekend’s event. The weekend opens with a promoter test day on Thursday followed by official practice and qualifying on Friday. The 2.5-hour Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race will begin Saturday at 10:35 AM (ET).

Live timing and scoring is available throughout the weekend at www.grand-am.com. SPEED will televise the race Sunday, June 23 at 4:00 PM (ET).

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Atlanta, Ga. (20 April 2013) – Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing got knocked back, but didn’t fall down. Drivers Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi suffered two tough hits and some bad luck in pit lane during Round 4 of the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Road Atlanta, but that didn’t keep the team from retaining the championship points lead.

Longhi opened the PWC 250 at Road Atlanta event from the pole after Friday’s qualifying session was rained out and the grid was set by championship point order. Showing strength from the drop of the green flag, the No. 13 immediately pulled out a two-second advantage over the 60-car combined class field. But just four laps into the 2.5-hour event, the GS field encountered the slower ST traffic and a pack of cars began to catch the No. 13.

Longhi found himself in a battle for the point with the No. 55 but unfortunately his very strong run was thwarted when the No. 55 punted the No. 13 Porsche out of the lead with Longhi falling to eighth in the order.

“It is such a shame, because the first 10 laps were great,” offered Longhi. “I was running a pace that would preserve the car because you know you’re going to catch traffic. Everything was going according to plan until the contact from the 55 car. The car was great – it was really hooked up and we had a good lead. I just don’t know what he thought he was doing there.”

The Rum Bum squad didn’t let the setback slow them down as Longhi was back to fourth prior to the team’s first pit stop with 45 minutes completed in the race.

Ready to make a traditional fast Rum Bum pit stop and driver change, Longhi brought the No. 13 to pit lane only to find the bad racing luck continue when tow trucks on pit road forced him to come to a complete stop and excruciatingly wait while several other cars who had already passed the trucks were able to make their pit stops and return to the track.

Once finally in the pit box, the Rum Bum crew delivered a lightning fast pit stop, but the track position had already been lost and Plumb restarted from the 15^th position.

Despite the fact that the Porsche was losing a bumper due to the early-race contact and slowing the car considerably as it acted like a parachute, Plumb once again began a relentless charge through the field during the second half of the race to challenge for the fifth position with just under 20 minutes remaining.

But that strong run was again halted when a competing BMW misjudged his braking distance taking to the grass (which was wet from Friday’s rain storms) and only slowed down by hitting the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche.

Following the hit, Plumb fell to 10^th in the order and the track immediately went yellow for another on-track incident. The race would finish under the yellow and Rum Bum Racing settled for 10^th at the finish.

“We came away with some points, but we definitely had bad luck today,” said Plumb. “We lost a ton of track position when the two tow trucks stopped us in pit lane. I went back out and for as good of a car as we have there is nothing you can do against all the torque and horsepower out there. Where we’re quickest there is no usable space on the racetrack to pass. Towards the end we were challenging for fifth and I felt like we could have maybe made it up onto the podium, but then boom, contact from the No. 48. This track just breeds impatience. All in all not a great day, but you can’t win them all.”

With the result, Rum Bum Racing maintains the provisional GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge championship standings with a six-point advantage.

The PWC 250 At Road Atlanta will be televised on Saturday, April 27 at 2:00 PM (ET) on SPEED.

Rum Bum Racing will see an eight-week break in Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race action before Round 5 of the championship at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course June 13-15.

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Atlanta, Ga. (19 April 2013) – The No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche will start from the pole in Saturday’s PWC 250 At Road Atlanta for round four of the 2013 GRAND-AM Championship.

The grid was set by point order when qualifying was cancelled due to heavy rains in the Atlanta area. Nick Longhi will open the two hour, thirty-minute race before handing the Porsche over to co-driver Matt Plumb to take to the finish.

Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing, who has finished in the top-five in each of the three opening rounds of GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competition this year – including a victory in the previous round at Barber Motorsports Park, currently leads the Grand Sport championship.

“It would have been nice to show what we could do in qualifying but at the same time it’s really great to be starting up front at Road Atlanta,” said Plumb. “With this being a challenging track as well as a new track for GRAND-AM, I think we could see some attrition tomorrow so it’s all the more important to be starting at the front. The team has just been fantastic so far this season and has put us at the top of the championship so a big thanks to the Rum Bum guys. We’ve had good pace so far this weekend so hopefully we can stay out of trouble and convert our pace into another strong finish.”

The event marks the fifth time Rum Bum Racing has started on the pole. The team has scored 12 wins and 18 podiums since its debut in 2010.

The 2.5-hour PWC 250 at Road Atlanta race is set to begin Saturday at 11:30 AM (ET). Live timing and scoring can be followed at www.grand-am.com.

SPEED will televise the event Saturday, April 27 at 2:00 PM (ET).

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Orlando, Fla. (17 April 2013) – When Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing team arrives at Road Atlanta, the driving duo of Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi will be targeting the team’s 13^th victory in just three years of racing as the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge makes its debut at the historic 2.54-mile world-class circuit.

Fresh off a dramatic victory in the previous round of Barber Motorsports Park, where the team rallied back from a lap down to take the win in the No. 13 Porsche, Rum Bum Racing leads the GRAND-AM championship heading into Round 4.

“It truly was one of our greatest wins just because we had to come back from such unfortunate circumstances,” said Plumb of the Barber event. “We had a rough pit stop and went a lap down. We got our lap back with the wave around, but you have to keep digging the whole time. We thought we were down but this team never, never gives up. (Team owner) Luis Bacardi put together this team and all the pieces of the team just work together.”

Though the Road Atlanta facility is a new venue to many of the drivers competing in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series, both Plumb and Longhi already have years of experience at the circuit – with Plumb having raced at the track in the open wheel ranks as well as in World Challenge competition and with Longhi having competed in ALMS GT competition.

“I drove at Road Atlanta quite a bit in both two liter formula cars and Barber Dodge and then World Challenge,” offered Plumb. “And now I do a lot of iRacing which is amazing how similar it is to actually racing at the track. I think it’s really great that GRAND-AM is going back to Road Atlanta. It’s one of the cooler tracks that we have in North America so the fact that we’ve been missing it, is a bit of a bummer. Now that we’re there again it just adds to the excitement of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge racing!”

“Road Atlanta is a track that I like a lot – it’s one of my favorite ones in North America,” echoed Longhi. “It’s a real race course. It’s fast and up and down hill and it’s a lot of fun to drive. I like it personally, a lot. It has a great history. It’s really fun to drive. It’s a really great atmosphere in terms of the fans – they appreciate what they’re watching. I’m very, very excited to go there. I’ve raced there before in ALMS in various cars years ago. But obviously in GRAND-AM we haven’t been there in a few years so I’ve missed it a lot. It’s great to be able to race there again. It’s one of the greatest race tracks in North America for sure.”

Rum Bum Racing Crew Chief Joe Varde, who calls the strategy for Rum Bum Racing and played a major role in securing the team’s championship title last year, also has a vast amount of experience at the track. Varde is one of the most successful championship-winning road racers of the last 25 years and has plenty of knowledge of the Road Atlanta road course having driven in ALMS, Cayman Interseries and IMSA Firehawk competition – among others.

“I think it’s great,” said Varde of the Road Atlanta addition to the GRAND-AM schedule. “We grow up road racing and we go to all of these tracks and then when the big separation came we didn’t go to Road Atlanta anymore and we missed that a lot. And now that (the two series) are back together we’re going to be racing those tracks and I think it’s going to be good for everybody. I’ve got a lot of great Road Atlanta memories. In 1983 I won the (IMSA Firehawk) race there and I had my son there on the podium – he was very young at the time and I had a picture with him on the podium and I thought that was very cool.”

The weekend kicks off with a promoter test day on Thursday, April 18. Official practice and qualifying takes place on Saturday with the race set to go green on Saturday, April 20 at 11:30 AM (ET).

Live timing and scoring is available throughout the weekend at www.grand-am.com. SPEED will televise the event April 27 at 2:00 PM (ET).

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Grows Championship lead with strong run to victory

Birmingham, Ala. (6 April 2013) – Last year, Rum Bum Racing flipped the script. This year, it was a re-run.

Rum Bum Racing returned to victory lane at Barber Motorsports Park on Saturday to score a repeat win at the Alabama road course. Drivers Nick Longhi and Matt Plumb fought back from a lap down to score Rum Bum Racing’s 12th GRAND-AM victory.

Longhi opened the race from the fourth row after having qualified the No. 13 Porsche eighth on the grid. He ran a strong opening stint among the top-six throughout the first 20 laps before the team called him to pit lane just past the 30 minute mark for a routine pit stop and driver change.

A traditional quick Rum Bum pit stop was thwarted when a problem with the refueling system saw the stop take much longer than it should have and the No. 13 fell a lap down. Fortunately, a yellow flag was displayed soon after the pit stop which saw Plumb pick up the pace car ahead of the race leader and earn the ‘wave around’ to return to the lead lap.

Plumb restarted from the 20^th position but wasted no time in moving forward as he made a charge through the field to run fourth with just under an hour remaining in the race.

A caution late in the race saw Plumb circulating with a clear shot for a podium finish. When asked by the Speed pit reporter if he was thinking about a win or the championship, crew chief Joe Varde didn’t hesitate as Luis Bacardi looked on.

“I am thinking ‘championship,’ but the boss likes to win so we are going to go for it!”

Indeed, Plumb was on the same page as he out-dueled the leader to score the point before one final full course caution. Plumb led the field to the green and never looking back, scoring Rum Bum Racing’s first victory of the season.

“I never thought I’d love Alabama so much!” exclaimed Plumb. “It was awesome. It truly was one of our greatest wins just because we had to come back from such unfortunate circumstances. We had a rough pit stop where we had a problem with the fuel system and went a lap down. We got our lap back with the wave around, but you have to keep digging the whole time. When the boss is in town, you got to make sure you win!”

“This team is just unbelievable and Matt is an amazing driver,” said Longhi. “The combination of this whole team working together is incredible. We were a lap down and the strategy early on was just to be careful. Try to keep the car in one piece and keep the tires underneath you and it was a bit hectic. We were doing okay. The yellows were timed the wrong way and we thought we were down but this team never, never gives up and Luis Bacardi put together this team and I just can’t get over how strong it is all the time. All the pieces of the team just work together. I’m really so happy to be a small part of this amazing operation.”

The victory extends Rum Bum Racing’s championship lead with a 17-point advantage. The team will return to race action at Road Atlanta in two weeks, April 18-20.

SPEED will televise the Barber Motorsports Park event Saturday, April 13 at 2:00 PM (ET).

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Birmingham, Ala. (5 April 2013) – After starting the 2012 race at Barber Motorsports Park from fifth, Rum Bum Racing took a dramatic victory in the team’s first-ever outing with a Porsche 911 on the way to scoring the 2012 GRAND-AM Championship. Drivers Nick Longhi and Matt Plumb will look to defend last year’s victory with another strong outing as the duo enter the race weekend leading both the driver and team championship standings ahead of the third Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge round.

The picturesque track has not featured post card weather to go with the high quality of facilities, with cold temperatures and variable precipitation keeping the drivers busy on the 2.3-mile circuit during the opening two days of testing.

The weather started to turn for the better on Friday as the field was ready to set the grid in a 15-minute qualifying session on Friday morning.

The session proved to be a stop and start affair, as an early yellow flag saw Longhi forced to cool his heels in pit lane before the track went green again with just over four minutes to go. Unfortunately, Longhi, along with several other competitors, was judged to have been a little too eager to get out of pit lane.

A quick roll back through the pit lane to serve a pit speeding penalty meant that he had only one more flying lap to set a time, and he made the most of it with a fast lap time of 1:35.699-seconds to score eighth on the grid.
“On my first lap, the tires were just too cold because it had been raining,” said Longhi. “I really thought there’d be more grip. And so I went through the last corner with a lot of understeer, and I should have known it was going to take a couple of laps to warm up, but I didn’t want to take “no” for an answer. So I was sideways and sliding around too much, figuring that the next lap it would settle in.”

The weather has kept the drivers and engineers on their toes, but with a more consistent and hospitable forecast for race day, the team is optimistic for a strong result.

“I felt like if I could have done one or two more laps before the black flag, we would have been faster, but I don’t know if we had the pole,” said Longhi. “But this is what happens in this series. There’s a lot of black flags, especially at a track like this where there’s going to be a lot of cars off track and a lot of contact. But it is what it is, we are where we are, we have a great team, and we’ll win anyway.”

The 2.5-hour Barber race will go green on Saturday at 4:00 PM local time. Live timing and scoring is available at www.grand-am.com.

Saturday’s race will be broadcast on SPEED, April 13 2:00 PM ET.

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Looking to Defend Last Year’s Race Win

A look back at Rum Bum Racing’s Rolex 24 Effort

Notes:
*Rum Bum Racing will be guests of the Birmingham area Porsche Club of America during the event, with drivers Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi featured guests for a race-day Q&A and tech talk

Orlando, Fla. (1 April 2013) – With just over a month between Rounds 2 and 3 of the 2013 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge championship, Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing is ready to go at Barber Motorsports Park this weekend as the team is set to defend its 2012 victory at the track.

Looking to mount a vigorous defense of its 2012 GRAND-AM team title, Rum Bum Racing currently sits atop the championship standings heading into Round 3 after strong performances in the first two rounds.

The 2.3-mile, 17-turn scenic road course located in Birmingham, Alabama is one of the most technical tracks on the 2013 calendar, and drivers Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi are eager to return to race action.

Last year’s Barber victory came in the team’s first Porsche start after making the transition from BMW. Despite driving a brand new car with a nearly empty notebook, Plumb and Longhi showed that Rum Bum Racing preparation and team execution are second to none, no matter what the equipment is. The victory kicked off a string of wins for Rum Bum Racing as the team went on to claim five victories in 10 races on the way to securing the 2012 team championship title after taking a dramatic victory in the season-finale race at Lime Rock Park.

The team has delivered two strong performances in the first two rounds – scoring a second place result at Daytona International Speedway and a fourth place finish at Circuit of the Americas in GRAND-AM’s Texas debut. As the Rum Bum squad returns to Barber Motorsports Park, the team would like nothing more than to take a repeat win in Saturday’s 2.5-hour event.

“It is always great to come back to a track where you won the last year,” said Plumb. “Winning on debut with the Porsche was to me a great display of what this Rum Bum team is capable of. So far this year, we haven’t won a race, which is always the ambition, but with two races under our belts, we’re happy with where we are in the points. Every weekend, we know that we have to pull out as many points as possible and stay out of trouble. We saw that in Texas–some very strong championship contenders had issues. We just have to focus on our game plan and hope to have a little racing luck in there as well!”

Barber Motorsports Park tends to flatter the high horsepower V8s with its low speed corners and high-speed straights and due to the track’s technical layout, it’s all the more important for Longhi to qualify the Porsche machine toward the front of the nearly 60-car combined class grid.

“We’ve found that this car has a good race pace, but on a track like Barber you need a lot of grunt to pull out of the slower corners,” said Longhi. “So with our Porsche, the more track position we can earn in qualifying, the better we’ll be in the race as this car runs well out front. The big thing is keeping the nose clean and turning the car over ready to go in the final laps of the race. Barber can be a messy track for contact, so hopefully we can just stay out of trouble and be at the front when it counts.”

The weekend kicks off with a promoter test day on Wednesday with official practice on Thursday. Qualifying will take place on Friday at 11:15 AM (ET). The green flag is set to wave on the 2.5-hour race at 5:00 PM (ET) on Saturday.

Live timing and scoring can be followed at www.grand-am.com throughout the weekend. SPEED will televise the event Saturday, April 13 at 2:00 PM (ET).

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Austin, Texas (2 March 2013) – After winning the 2012 GRAND-AM Championship, Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing is once again back on top as the team scored a fourth place finish at the Circuit of the Americas to move to the top of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Championship. Both Rum Bum Racing drivers Nick Longhi and Matt Plumb led during the race as the duo once again made the most of the preparation from the Joe Varde-led crew.

The race (which will air on SPEED, March 9 4:00 PM ET) saw Longhi start from third in the order and run in the top four during his opening stint. The world-class facility set the stage for an exciting battle, with Longhi in the thick of the fight. But the New York-based racer has seen the ebbs and flows of championship campaigns, and knew that it was key to keep the nose clean and the big picture in mind.

“You always prefer to win, but you have to be smart,” said Longhi. “There were a couple of guys ahead of us who weren’t important as far as points. They were willing to take chances and wreck their cars just to get one spot on the track, whereas that is just not a good gamble for us. The team was flawless as usual, and the car was great. Onward and upward.”

After moving to the lead of the race, Longhi turned the car over to Plumb with the car in podium position – Plumb returning to the fray in fifth. A big battle for the podium ensued, with some close racing also leading to some hard and mis-judged contact from some familiar sources. But Plumb avoided any issues to be ready to fight at the finish. A final pit stop that featured a two-tire change didn’t harvest the seeds of the strategy call following an extended yellow period, but the the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche was able to still fight to the finish and score fourth, locking in 60 points to move to the top of the charts with two rounds of racing in the books.

“It was a good points race, and it’s great to get to the lead in the championship,” said Plumb. “Our pit stop strategy was great–had it not gone yellow everyone would have had to come in for fuel. You have to make the most of what the opportunity is, and we did that this weekend. The team did another great job, and we will just keep building on this. We are already looking forward to getting to Barber!”

SPEED will broadcast the event Saturday, March 9 at 4:00 PM (ET).

Rum Bum Racing will be back in action again April 6th at Barber Motorsports Park. The team debuted with the Porsche at the track in 2012, scoring a dramatic breakthrough victory and will target a similar outcome.

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Austin, Texas (1 March 2013) – A new year, a new track, and a new state, but a familiar result as Nick Longhi wheeled the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche to third on the GRAND-AM of the Americas grid on Friday at the Circuit of the Americas.

The event weekend marks the debut for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series at the track for Round 2 of the 2013 championship season. Longhi will open the 2.5-hour race (SPEED, March 9 4:00 PM ET) from behind the wheel before turning the car over to co-driver Matt Plumb to take to the finish as the duo chase a 12th win for Rum Bum Racing.

Longhi’s fast lap time of 2:32.097-seconds around the 3.4-mile, Formula-1 grade circuit marks the second consecutive top-five start for Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing so far in the 2013 GRAND-AM season as the team looks to defend its maiden GRAND-AM Team Championship from 2012.

“I caught traffic on what I thought was going to be my fast lap,” said Longhi. “The team sent me out at exactly the right time for my second flying lap. But on my third lap, I caught two guys who were  stragglers. I  backed up to try to get another fast lap in, but just ran out of time for the session. With this team, you always expect to be strong. We were hoping for the pole, but all in all, this is a very good race car and we should be strong tomorrow.”

Live timing and scoring can be followed at www.grand-am.com. SPEED will broadcast the event Saturday, March 9 at 4:00 PM (ET).

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Orlando, Fla. (27 February 2013) – The GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series (CTSCC) has traveled to many diverse tracks around the country and this weekend will make its debut at the new state-of-the-art Circuit of the Americas. Luis Bacardi’s Rum Bum Racing is eager to return to race action for the highly anticipated Round 2 of the 2013 championship held at the 3.4-mile road course located just outside of Austin, Texas as the team looks to generate maximum points toward its GRAND-AM Championship defense.

The venue, which was purpose-built for the high horsepower Formula 1 machines, marks a new track and a new challenge for all of the GRAND-AM teams as each arrives with an empty notebook allowing for a fairly equal playing field heading into the race.

But with a track record that has seen the Rum Bum Racing team seamlessly rise to these types of challenges, the group is hoping to once again show strength on this new circuit.

In Rum Bum Racing’s 2010 debut season in which virtually all of the race events were held at tracks new to the rookie team, the group claimed three wins and five podiums that year. The 2011 season saw the CTSCC visit two new tracks – Road America and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca – and in typical Rum Bum fashion, the team wasted no time in getting up to speed. Rum Bum Racing not only claimed the pole at Road America but also went on to stand on the podium in third. The team scored another podium with a third place result in its first-ever visit to Laguna Seca.

And as Rum Bum Racing travels to Texas, the defending champions are ready to carry the positive podium momentum from Daytona into this weekend’s race. After starting fifth in the season-opening event, a series of setbacks saw the No. 13 Porsche fall all the way to 34th position only to battle back to finish second through the combined efforts of crew chief Joe Varde’s shrewd strategy, quick pit work from the Rum Bum crew, and the superb driving talents of Longhi and Plumb.

“For us, as a team we just don’t get down,” said Longhi, who found himself spun from leading the race in Daytona. “Things happen – we got knocked back to last place and came back twice essentially. We never give up and keep coming back. For this weekend, it’s exciting for us to be going to a new circuit, especially one that is as remarkable as this. We had a very productive test there that hopefully will translate into another good weekend for the team.”

Rum Bum Racing tested the No. 13 Porsche machine at the 20-turn Texas track in December with both Longhi and Plumb giving the first-time facility rave reviews.

“Circuit of the Americas is a spectacular facility – it is really like no other place I’ve seen,” said Plumb. “The Formula 1 race here had some of the best racing I’ve ever seen. The track is configured so it has many passing zones and plenty of room so it should be another typical exciting Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race. We got the season off on the right foot at Daytona, and our main focus is to just keep that momentum going as the season picks up.”

The event kicks off with a promoter test day on Thursday, February 28. Official practice and qualifying will take place on Friday ahead of the 2.5-hour race on Saturday which is set to begin at 11:00 AM (ET).

Live timing and scoring can be followed at www.grand-am.com. SPEED will broadcast the event Saturday, March 9 at 4:00 PM (ET).

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