Can Matt Bell Get Back to the Podium at VIR?

Can Matt Bell Get Back to the Podium at VIR?

Contact: Matt Cleary
Media
317-908-2975

Danville, Va (11 May 2011) – As the final moments of last year’s Bosch Engineering 200 clicked off, there was a lot of pacing and fingernail chewing on pit lane. The Stevenson Motorsports Camaro walked the tightrope of speed and fuel performance perfectly to take a debut GRAND-AM podium result for the Riley Technologies-built Chevrolet Camaro at Virginia International Raceway.

That result kicked-off an uptick in GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge performance for Stevenson Motorsports as Matt Bell went on to score a debut pole position and led the first laps with the Chevy Camaro.

Fast forward one year and Bell is back at VIR, this year teaming in the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GS.R with another young hard charger in the form of John Edwards. The duo arrive in rural Virginia after netting their season-best result of fifth in the most recent round of racing.

“We’ve definitely put the race in Daytona out of our memory, and have just been working on getting better every weekend,” said Bell, who will likely qualify and handle the starting duties this weekend. “The Camaro continues to develop, and even though we have more confidence about our qualifying pace than we do about the entire race, we’ll hopefully be mixing it up at the front again.”

With finishes of 28th, 11th, and 5th on the record sheet, there is a clear trend heading into the event, which marks round four of the 2011 championship.

“I’m really happy with some of the solutions that Stevenson has come up with from an engineering point of view — there have been sessions where we found the sweet spot perfectly,” said Bell, who also is trending in qualifying with starts of fourth, third, and second in the first three races. “It could also be a race where we are dealing with the rain, but we won’t know until race day. That will keep the engineers busy! In the mean time, we have a plan in place for the test day and the practice sessions so we’ll hopefully be in good shape not just in qualifying, but also for the race. This is a really fun track to race on, and hopefully we can bring the Camaro home on the podium again.”

Bell returns to on-track action at VIR for a promoter test day on Thursday, May 12 followed by official practice and qualifying on Friday. The Bosch Engineering 200 will begin at 11:15 AM (ET) on Saturday, May 14. The race will broadcast May 22 at 1:00 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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