Ruhlman and Bingham Set to Take on the Streets of Long Beach in the #40 Derhaag Motorsports Daytona Prototype
Long Beach, Calif. (April 5, 2006) – This weekend marks a return to the streets of Long Beach California for the drivers of the #40 Preformed Line Products Pontiac Riley for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Both Chris Bingham and Randy Ruhlman have driving experience at the Long Beach Grand Prix race and are looking forward to the challenges of this fast, 1.968-mile street course that runs along the beautiful Long Beach harbor. Bingham, who has concentrated on Grand American racing for the past few years, was at Long Beach in the Indy Lights program in 1997. Ruhlman's win at last year's Long Beach Grand Prix Trans-Am race marked the beginning of his run for the 2005 Trans-Am Drivers' Championship with Derhaag Motorsports.
The pair of drivers joined up as 2006 full season drivers for Derhaag Motorsports and Bingham and Ruhlman are ready to show what they have in these Daytona Prototype cars in Saturday's Rolex Cup race, the Crown Royal Grand American Challenge of Long Beach. Not only do the drivers have experience at the Long Beach track, but top race car engineer Buddy Fey and team owner Jim Derhaag of the Derhaag Motorsports team have a wealth of knowledge from which to draw. The team has competed at the Long Beach Grand Prix for over a decade in the Trans-Am Series, and won last year's race with Ruhlman at the helm.
Both Bingham and Ruhlman are confident of the improvements the car has made over the last several races and of their ability to learn the track quickly in the new car to make a good showing for the sponsors for the 4 PM PDT start on Saturday, April 8. Randy Ruhlman and Chris Bingham also have extensive racing experience in both road racing and NASCAR series.
On-track activities get started on Friday with a practice session from 8 – 8:45 AM and qualifying from 3:55 – 4:55 PM. An early morning warm-up on Sunday begins at 8 AM, and the race starts at 4 PM for the 90-minute race, with television coverage on SPEED, 9PM EDT (6PM PDT).
Chris Bingham, the two-time Grand American GTS champion, was a top competitor in Daytona Prototypes last year. Ruhlman, who just came off a successful 2005 season in the Trans-Am Series with wins at both the Long Beach Grand Prix and the Cleveland Grand Prix, has driven at the Long Beach Grand Prix since his Rookie Year in the 1990 Trans-Am Series.
Bingham, of Bellevue, Washington, is a professional racing driver with an impressive resume and years of experience. He has competed in the Busch Grand National Series, open wheel racing in Indy Lights as well as IRL and has extensive endurance racing experience. As a two-time Rolex Sports Car Series GTS champion, Bingham was nominated as one of the "Best Road Racers of the Year" in 2002. He made his return to full time Rolex Series racing in 2004, piloting the #15 CB Motorsports car, before joining the Derhaag Motorsports team for 2006.
As well as being the winner of the 2005 Long Beach Grand Prix Trans-Am race, Randy Ruhlman won the Cleveland Grand Prix, was named the 2005 BBS "Most Improved Driver of the Year", and was runner up for the 2005 Trans-Am Drivers' Championship. Ruhlman makes the record books as fourth in Top Ten finishes in Trans-Am history. A veteran racecar driver, Ruhlman has extensive racing experience, predominantly in road racing in the Trans-Am Series, as well as in IMSA, ASA and the NASCAR short track series..
Derhaag Motorsports Pontiac Riley carries primary sponsorship from Preformed Line Products with additional sponsorship logos of Coyote Closures®, Park Place Ltd, KeyBank and McDonald Financial Group.
Preformed Line Products (PLP) is an international manufacturer and supplier of hardware and support systems for the communications and energy industries. Products include the COYOTE® Closure and GUY-GRIP® Dead-End used in the telecommunications, cable and energy industries. Manufacturing facilities are located worldwide in the USA, Canada, China, Brazil, Mexico, England, Spain, South Africa, Australia and Thailand.
Cleveland-based KeyCorp is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $92 billion. Key companies provide investment management, retail and commercial banking, consumer finance, and investment banking products and services to individuals and companies throughout the United States and, for certain businesses, internationally.
McDonald Financial Group offers comprehensive financial services to affluent individuals from 87 offices in 15 states. As part of Cleveland-based KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY), McDonald Financial Group combines the capabilities of McDonald Investments Inc.'s Private Client Group, member NASD/NYSE/SIPC, and Key PrivateBank. McDonald Financial Group offers banking, estate planning, financial planning, retirement planning, brokerage, trust, individual asset management, insurance advice and services, and charitable giving counsel.
For further information about the drivers, sponsor, team, please visit the following links:
Derhaag Motorsports http://www.derhaag.com/
Randy Ruhlman http://www.randyruhlman.com/
Chris Bingham http://www.chrisbingham.com/
Preformed Line Products http://www.preformed.com/
KeyBank http://www.key.com/
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