Bell Battles to 11th at Homestead with Stevenson Camaro GS. R

Bell Battles to 11th at Homestead with Stevenson Camaro GS. R

Contact: Matt Cleary
Media
317-908-2975

Homestead, FL (5 March 2011) – Matt Bell powered through nearly every conceivable obstacle on his way to an 11th place finish in the Grand Prix of Miami on Saturday at Homestead Miami Speedway for Stevenson Motorsports. Sharing the No. 9 Camaro SG.R with Jon Edwards, Bell once again showed his pace in qualifying with a run to third on the huge grid in Friday’s qualifying session.

Bell has long shown himself to be a strong qualifier no matter where he runs, and Homestead is no exception. Despite a strong qualifying record, Bell though doesn’t have the results at the South Florida track to show for it, and that was the primary goal at race time as he looked to work back from a disappointing season-opening race at Daytona.

Using a familiar playbook, Bell started moving forward once the race started, and had a run at the lead at one point following an early restart, but made the shrewd decision to wait for the next opportunity.

But before that could happen, it was time for a driver change as he turned the reigns over to Edwards, who fought back up the order following the pit stop before Stevenson elected to do another driver change for the final leg of the 2.5 hour race.

“I don’t know when we lost the sway bar. It was okay – we were a little bit slow compared to the BMWs and that but it wasn’t too bad. I could even put it down on the Mustang even. The tires got old -but not terrible – I got out, and John got in and right when he got in he had a bad sway bar. We got through a few laps and after that he was starting to say it was way too loose so they brought him in and put me back in. At the same time they loosened up our rear sway bar which was a really good call by our engineers and went back out, but we just didn’t have anything for anybody.”

Returning to the Camaro, Bell had to work through a variety of issues, from the problem with the sway bar to a gear box problem to finally losing the alternator. But the driver held on and kept fighting despite the distractions and the loss of performance on offer. That hard work paid off with an 11th place finish as Bell went through the litany of challenges that he faced in a post-race debrief.

“I had a tank slapper from one end of the track to the other and brushed the wall, so it’s like a war machine right now– it’s got no alternator. We also had a problem with the transmission, but a testament to the team about how indestructible this car is. I mean, it’s got no charging system, no tires left, it’s missing an axle, it’s missing a sway bar, it barely brakes, it wants to go sideways on the oval but we still finished 11th. It’s an amazing car, the team did awesome just trying to make sure we had the best we could for the scenario. We knew we weren’t coming into this with much, so 11th is awesome.”

The race will be shown on SPEED Channel March 19th, starting at 2:00 PM ET.

With some positive momentum, and a lot of new knowledge about what kind of tough machine the Camaro can be, Bell and Edwards will head to Barber Motorsports Park April 5-7 for round three of the 2011 championship.

PR inquiries about Matt Bell should be directed to Matt Cleary at Sunday Group Management; 317.908.2975 (mobile) or media @sundaymanagement.com

For additional information:
www.sundaymanagement.com

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Matt Cleary
Sunday Group Management
media
http://www.sundaymanagement.com
317.908.2975 (m)


Based in Indianapolis, Sunday Group Management is a leading motorsports management and communications consulting firm.

Sunday Group Management works with clients in a variety of motorsports categories, including NASCAR Sprint Cup driver AJ Allmendinger, Riley Technologies, GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series organization Michael Shank Racing, Continental Tire, and several teams and drivers in Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competition.

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