Matt Bell Scores Best Result of the Year at Barber Motorsports Park

Matt Bell Scores Best Result of the Year at Barber Motorsports Park

Matt Cleary, Sunday Group Management
Mediamanagement.com
317-908-2975

(9 April 2011) – Matt Bell returned to GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competition in Round 3 at Barber Motorsports Park as he and Stevenson Motorsports co-driver Jon Edwards scored their best result of the young season with the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GS.R. The duo placed fifth among a stout GS field after a heated battle through the 2.5-hour event.

The weekend started out strong for Bell as he consistently ran in the top-10 in Thursday’s practice sessions. Ever the strong qualifier, Friday’s qualifying session saw Bell lay down the second quickest lap time to start the two and a half hour race from the outside pole.

Looking to be mindful of tire wear and not using the car up before Edwards took the controls, Bell drove a smart opening stint and stayed glued to the bumper of the No. 15 Mustang while conserving tires in a race where tire wear is key. Even while driving with conservation in mind, Bell remained on pace as the top-three cars developed a substantial gap on the rest of the field.

“The tires fall off very fast,” said Bell. “So the team made a few changes to make it a bit easier for us which helped, but toward the end of the stint I was still in emergency sideways mode.”

That sidewise mode was most apparent as he was knocked into what should have been a full spin by the No. 61 machine in a fight at the front. But Bell put his fast hands and natural talent to quick use as he kept the car from going off-track and returned to keep fighting. Bell pitted from third place to hand the No. 9 Camaro over to Edwards.

The Stevenson Motorsports machine dropped to 21st position following the pit-stop but Edwards made quick work of moving forward and slipped into the top-10. Edwards battled throughout the final stages of the race to finish sixth, the best finish of the year for the No. 9 entry.

“The car was really good,” offered Bell. “We managed to keep the tires under us and finish toward the front to grab some championship points. Hopefully we can continue to bring home some more solid results in the next few rounds. We were on the podium with the Camaro at VIR last year and it would be great to do that again. The Stevenson guys have worked so hard this weekend and it’s good to get some momentum with a finish like this. We’ll look to be even better at VIR.”

Bell returns to racing action at Virginia International Raceway May 13-14 for the Bosch Engineering 200 at VIR. The Barber 200 will air April 16 at 2:00 PM (ET) on SPEED.

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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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