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RUHLMAN
CAPTURES FIRST CAREER POLE AT ROAD AMERICA
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Aug. 6,
2004) — Top Corvette driver Randy Ruhlman won the pole
for
tomorrow’s race at Road America in Round 7 of the Motorock
Trans-Am Series. This is the first pole for
Corvette and Chevrolet in Trans-Am since the fall of 2002. It
is also Ruhlman’s first career pole position in
Trans-Am, having started this year on the front row at
Cleveland. Ruhlman, who is currently third in points
in the Driver’s Championship, solidly placed his Preformed
Line Products/Coyote Closure Chevrolet Corvette
ahead of the Jaguars of Jorge Diaz, Jr. and Paul Gentilozzi by
more than seven-tenths of a second of
Ruhlman’s 2:09.164-minute lap.
“It is great to get the pole
and I am pleased to get it for Corvette. This is a
continuation of a whole year
of work that goes back to last fall. We had to go back to the
drawing board with the car this year and the
whole team has come together and we are getting better each
race. We started to communicate and
learned to work together to get what I needed to drive the
car, rather than what the team thought would
work. It has panned out this year and Jim (Derhaag) has been
willing to give me anything and everything I
need to make the car go faster. It has obviously been paying
off and the consistency has been there
lately,” comments Ruhlman at the post-qualifying press
conference.
“We knew we were fast here
last year; we had a really good run. This morning, we were a
bit disappointed,
because we were off that time. We made some changes, and
oviously we went the right way. And we got it
back this afternoon. It ‘s good and after so much time to
finally be on the pole, its great,” comments Ruhlman.
“It’s tough fighting the
Jaguars, but I think the Corvette is up to it. And I think
that Paul [Gentilozzi] and the
stewards that he has assembled have worked hard to achieve
parity, and I think that is showing up in the
grid and showing up in the results as well. It makes a better
show for everyone and will continue to attract
more competitors in the coming years,” finished Ruhlman.
The start will be Ruhlman’s
144th start in Trans-Am. He has finished fourth or better in
the past four races,
with a second at To ronto, a third at Infineon and fourth at
Trois-Rivières and Cleveland. He received a point
for the pole and moved into sole possession of third with 129
points, just four from second place. The race
will be televised LIVE on HDNet and a highlight show will be
broadcast on SPIKE TV on Aug. 15 at 10 a.m. EDT.
Randy Ruhlman finished sixth
overall in 2003 in the Drivers’ Championship in a Derhaag
Motorsports Corvette.
He was seventh overall in 2002 while driving for Tom Gloy
Racing, with a second (and a 3rd in 2003) at Trois
Rivieres and third at Miami. Ruhlman was awarded the 2002 BBS
Wheels "Most Improved Driver of the Year".
Randy Ruhlman is fifth overall in Top Ten finishes in Trans-Am
history.
Ruhlman's Chevrolet Corvette
is fielded this year by the Minneapolis-based, Derhaag
Motorsports, led by
former Trans-Am driver Jim Derhaag. Jim Derhaag himself made
150 starts as a driver in the Trans-Am Series
before his successful move to full time ownership in 1998. The
team has fielded many successful drivers,
including top Trans-Am drivers Justin Bell, Kenny Wilden, Tony
Ave, Dorsey Schroeder, and Darin Brassfield.
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 Japan.
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