Bristol Motor Speedway
Ruhlman's second ALMS title especially satisfying
By Kevin Kovac
DIRT Motorsports
Brian Ruhlman piloted his own No. 49 in 2007. (DirtonDirt.com)
Brian Ruhlman’s second career Sunoco American Late Model Series championship had a little different look than his first. This time, he did it his way.
Ruhlman, 37, of Clarklake, Mich., captured the title of the UMP-sanctioned tour for the first time in 2005 while driving Mike Lawrence’s No. 11. He repeated this season as largely an owner-operator, entering his own Rocket No. 49 in 12 of the 16 events.
“It’s very satisfying to win it with our own stuff this year,” said Ruhlman, who also drove a No. 1 car owned by Ron Zeller of Delta, Ohio, in the four ALMS shows held in 2007 at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon, Ohio. “I drove the Lawrence car from 2002 until we split halfway through last season. I came back with my equipment to finish the season and just missed winning the championship (placing second to Rusty Schlenk by five points in 2006), but we got the job done this year.”
There was one other noticeable difference between Ruhlman’s points crowns: in 2005 he won five features en route to the title, but this year he came out on top of the standings without the benefit of a single victory.
Yes, it was a steady approach that brought Ruhlman the ALMS championship by 12 points over Duane Chamberlain of Richmond, Ind., whose three triumphs tied him with Jeep Van Wormer of Pinconning, Mich., as the tour’s winningest driver in 2007.
Ruhlman registered five top-five and 11 top-10 finishes en route to the $5,000 title, including runner-ups on June 1 at Indiana’s Gas City I-69 Speedway, June 22 at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park and June 23 at Oakshade. His best shot at a win was probably on Aug. 5 at Oakshade, where he was solidly in command of the feature when mechanical knocked him out late in the distance.
“You always like to win races, but we won it with consistency this year,” said Ruhlman, who ranks fourth on the all-time ALMS win list with 16 career victories. “Last year we won twice but didn’t win the championship, so you never know. I’ll take it any way I can get it.”
The title wasn’t decided until the season finale, the 25-lap Johnny Appleseed Classic on Sept. 2 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. After overtaking Chamberlain for the points lead the previous night at Oakshade with a drive from the 19th starting to eighth at the finish, Ruhlman knew the ALMS trophy would be his if he merely stayed on Chamberlain’s back bumper. He did better than that, however, finishing fifth to Chamberlain’s 14th to clinch the championship.
Going through the schedule without a win was the furthest thing from Ruhlman’s mind after his second title was secured.
“Only two other guys have won more than one (ALMS) championship — Kris Patterson (six) and Shane Yoder (two),” said Ruhlman, whose car is powered by a Malcuit engine and carries sponsorship from Zeller Towing and St. Henry Night Club. “Winning it a second time puts us in some pretty select company. It’s something for us to be proud of.”
Ruhlman is a big proponent of the ALMS, which has been in existence since 1995. This year’s tour visited 11 tracks in four states (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois), and 11 different drivers scored feature wins.
“It’s a working man’s series,” said Ruhlman. “You don’t have the real big hitters running the series because the purses aren’t real big, but you get a lot of good regional guys who like to travel to some different tracks without going too far from home.
“It’s the kind of series that fits our program. We really don’t have a big crew — it’s just my wife Heather and I at a lot of the races — but we can do this series.”
Ruhlman has been chasing the ALMS religiously for the past decade. It was a perfect fit for him after he moved in late 1995 to Toledo, Ohio, from the Jamestown, N.Y., area, where he had grown up and launched his racing career in 1986 in the Cadet division at Stateline Speedway in Busti, N.Y.
Ruhlman cut his racing eye teeth on the Erie, Pa.-area circuit that includes Stateline, Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa., and Raceway 7 in Conneaut, Ohio. He entered the dirt Late Model ranks for the first time in 1991 behind the wheel of a No. 1* car fielded by current World of Outlaws Late Model Series star Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., and promptly won the track title at Eriez, stamping him as a rising star at his local ovals.
A lucrative job opportunity led Ruhlman to relocate in Toledo. Ruhlman, whose younger brother Chad, 30, still lives in Bemus Point, N.Y., but drives a dirt Late Model that’s based in western Ohio, spent 11 years working as the engineering manager of an automotive engineering company that did design work for such firms as General Motors, Ford and Dodge, providing him a comfortable living and the means to fulfill his dirt Late Model racing appetite.
Ruhlman’s life underwent a change in 2006, however. For starters, he moved to Clarklake, Mich. — one hour north of the Ohio border — to be a bit closer to his wife’s work site. The more drastic change came in June — one day after he split with Lawrence’s racing team, Ruhlman learned that he was being laid off from his engineering job.
After considering his employment options, Ruhlman rolled the dice and made the sport he loved his livelihood: he decided to open Ruhlman Race Cars, a fully-stocked speed shop in Clarklake that serves as a dealer and repair center for Rocket Chassis Late Models and Modifieds.
“We had to scramble around, but we said we were gonna try to make this work,” said Ruhlman. “We already had a good reputation from the setup and repair work we had done as a hobby in the past, and before you knew it, people started showing up. We’ve been swamped ever since.”
One year later, Ruhlman’s new business is booming — and he’s a champion again with the Sunoco American Late Model Series.
