Tim Bell Set for Lime Rock Park Debut

Tim Bell Set for Lime Rock Park Debut

Lakeville, Conn. (26 May 2011) Tim Bell will add yet another new track to his racing resume this weekend as the Doran Racing driver makes his debut at Lime Rock Park for round five of the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge championship season. Set to share the Office Depot No. 14 BMW 128i with BJ Zacharias, the rookie racer Bell has been soaking up the experience as he takes on the 10-round season in his first year of racing at the GRAND-AM level.

The Lime Rock Park layout is a deceptively simple one, with the 1.53-mile, seven-turn track boasting just one left hand turn and lots of high-speed corners. But there is a lot of lap time to be found in each of those corners and Bell is eager to experience first-hand a track that has historically both frustrated and pleased racing drivers, depending on the lap time.

“I’ve been spending time driving the track on iRacing to get ready for the weekend, and I feel like I’ve got a good feel for it, but I’ve learned this year that there is no replacing the real thing,” said Bell. “It is a rhythm track and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. Carrying your momentum through every corner will be key and I think this could be a place where the BMW is strong.”

While the 12th place result in the most recent round at VIR wasn’t what Bell had been hoping for following the breakthrough podium finish at Barber Motorsports Park, it still paid some dividends. Bell is still firmly fifth in the driver championship standings, and sliced some 11 points into the MESCO Building For The Future Rookie of the Year deficit. He still stands second, but is now just 25 markers in arrears as the season rounds into the second half with a back-to-back schedule of races the next two weeks.

Adding to the new range of experiences for Bell will be the unique format of the 2.5-hour race, as the event will mark the only single-class race of the year as it will be a Street Tuner-only event.

“I don’t know what to expect, but I know it will be good to not be constantly looking in the mirror to make sure there isn’t a GS car trying to drive right through you!” joked Bell about some of the possible perils of multi-class racing. “It looks like every lap at Lime Rock is busy for the drivers, so with an ST-only race, that will be one less thing to think about for us. Hopefully it plays to our advantage.”

The race weekend is a compressed one, with Friday setting the grid and a Saturday morning race start. The race will not carry coverage from SPEED, so tune in to www.grand-am.com for timing and scoring on Saturday.

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Matt Cleary
Sunday Group Management
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http://www.sundaymanagement.com
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