Ruhlman and Bingham ready to drive the #40 Derhaag Motorsports Daytona Prototype at Mexico City
Mexico City (February 27, 2006) This weekend marks the return of the Grand American Daytona Prototype cars to Mexico City for the second race of the 2006 Rolex Cup season--the Mexico City 250 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez. And ready to follow up their finish at last month's Rolex 24 At Daytona is the #40 Preformed Line Products Daytona Prototype of Derhaag Motorsports. Saturday's 250-mile race will feature full season drivers Randy Ruhlman and Chris Bingham sharing the driving duties of the Buddy Fey-engineered Pontiac Riley. Both Randy Ruhlman and Chris Bingham have extensive racing experience, yet neither driver has driven the recently redesigned Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Chris Bingham, the two-time Grand American GTS champion was a top competitor in Daytona Prototypes last year, but missed the Fall Mexico City race. Ruhlman, who just came off a successful 2005 season in the Trans-Am Series and won the Long Beach Grand Prix and the Cleveland Grand Prix, last drove here in the 1991 Trans-Am Series in the Preformed Line Products Camaro. Regardless, both Bingham and Ruhlman are confident of the car and of their ability to learn this track quickly and make a good showing for the sponsors on Saturday. On-track activities get started on Thursday with two practice sessions on the 2.788-mile, 17-turn track. The track presents some rhythmic driving sections that Ruhlman says, "You're going to have to drive smoothly and not get behind in these sections. If you do, you are going to be behind for 4 or 5 more turns and that will be costly. Chris and Buddy and I are going to work hard to get the car working well, for that section and for the long, sweeping final turn onto the fast finish line stretch. It will be fun to get out there and get back to basics. Now that the season is really getting going, and the spectacle of the Daytona 24 is behind us, Chris and I can't wait to get out there and get driving." The #40 Preformed Line Products Riley will debut a new more vibrant graphics package at Mexico City. The familiar light blue has been transformed into a new and exciting royal blue, interestingly called "Winning Blue Metallic", on the white background with red mirrors and accents. The new colors and graphics mark a new beginning for the Preformed Line Products Daytona Prototype program and a more dynamic television and on-track package for the car. Qualifying is scheduled for Friday at 11:30 AM, following another practice session. The 250-mile race is slated to start at 3:15PM on Saturday, March 3rd. The television coverage will be delayed for prime time on Sunday on SPEED, 8PM EST (5PM PST). The 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 nation¹s 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 , 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 <http://www.chrisbingham.com/> / Preformed Line Products http://www.preformed.com/ KeyBank http://www.key.com <http://www.key.com/> / McDonald Financial Group http://www.key/mfg