Earlier this week, longtime IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge team Rum Bum Racing announced that they are suspending their campaign, effective immediately. They did not give an official reason for the move, other than to say “Enough is enough.”
The team was in the middle of its seventh season of competition in the series. During that time, the team won 21 races, winning first on debut with the pairing of Matt Plumb and Gian Bacardi. Later on, Nick Longhi took over the second driver spot. The team then won the last two Grand Sport team championships (2012-2013) when the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge was sanctioned by Grand-Am (Note: Due to Longhi failing to meet the minimum drive time rules at Lime Rock, the pair did not win the drivers’ championship in 2012. They did win both the drivers and team championships in 2013). When Longhi stepped away from driving, now team manager Matt Plumb recruited his brother Hugh Plumb to join the team. The team started out racing a BMW M3, but later switched out the BMW for a Porsche 911 Carerra.
The reason for that switch at the time was really quite simple.
“We made the switch because Mr. Bacardi (Luis Bacardi, team owner) wanted a Porsche,” Matt Plumb explained in a press conference at Lime Rock Park back in 2013. Matt continued on to say that the M3 was at a point in development where it would have needed to be completely overhauled. In other words, it was a good time for a new car.
The loss of Rum Bum Racing removes another team from an increasingly thin Grand Sport class. Only seven cars are entered in the top class for Saturday’s 150-minute race, along with 27 entries in the Street Tuner class. In Daytona, Rum Bum Racing was realistically the only team that could compete with Multimatic Motorsports before mechanical issues resulted in a bad finish. At Sebring, the team managed a third-place finish behind the Bodymotion Racing Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport of Cameron Cassels and Trent Hindman.
In their press release, Rum Bum Racing did indicate that they are not done for good. They plan to evaluate future competition and partnership opportunities.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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