"It's ruined," Gene Sigal said after his No. 7 RumBum.com BMW Riley was involved in a fire during the recent RumBum.com 250 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. "It's charcoal from the firewall back."

Team manager Emmanuel Lupe concurred. "We are going to need a miracle to be ready for The Glen," Lupe said. "Everything is burned inside the engine cover and tail."

Fortunately, they didn't share their feelings with the crewmembers, who are well underway with repairs to having the Daytona Prototype ready to go for the June 7 Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen.

"We had a big misfortune," Sigal said on Tuesday evening's American Road Racing Weekly on WROD, Daytona Beach. "We had a huge fire. We're lucky enough that the crew is working every day, all night long. Now, we're sure that the truck's going to be leaving this upcoming weekend for Watkins Glen."

The team has been fast - but unlucky - in 2008 so far. Sigal and co-driver Matt Plumb finished fifth at both Virginia International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. However, the car was involved in an incident at Mexico City, where Plumb got together with SunTrust Racing's Michael Valiante while battling for position.

While Rum Bum Racing was struggling to repair the damage from the fire, Sigal was one of the first to call Wayne Taylor after the SunTrust Racing hauler was destroyed by fire while returning from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

"We offered them our second trailer that we were intending to use if we ran a second car," Sigal said. "When Wayne had his misfortune, I thought it would be a nice gesture to extend to him - allowing him to use anything we're not using so he can make the second race."

That Mexico City incident has been long forgotten.

"It was just one of those things," Sigal said. "What happens on the track, you try to leave it on the track. You want to be in a position no matter what happens in the race, you can have a beer and laugh afterwards with your competitors. SunTrust is obviously a great team and it's definitely a benchmark for us with all the results they've had. Sometimes everybody's going for the same piece of pavement. Things happen on the track; we're over it, we're on to the next race."

Plumb is coming off a solid showing in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series race at Lime Rock Park, when he secured a podium finish for Bill Fenton Motorsports with a last-lap pass. The Daytona Prototype rookie is looking forward to racing at Watkins Glen.

"The Rum Bum team is the hardest working team I've ever come in contact with," Plumb said. "They put so much heart and effort into this season that it breaks my heart to see this happen - especially on my watch. Gene, Emmanuel and Mr. Bacardi know our potential, and they will prevail. One of these weekends, when everything comes together for us, I think we're going to be running with the top cars. Unfortunately, so far this year, every time we get everything perfect, disaster strikes.

"Fortunately, the damage from the Laguna fire was not as bad as they said," Plumb added. "It was not a total write-off. But there was a lot of damage."

Sigal is confident the team will have another strong showing at The Glen.

"The car has been extremely competitive," he said. "I got to take my hat off to the crew and our engineer, Brian Ma; he's really put together a car that's been well balanced so far and we've been able to drive it quite quick. We have a lot of new players, but everyone's been giving it 100 percent. With a little more time, we'll get a little more performance out of the team.