Matt Bell Ready for Double Duty at Watkins Glen

Matt Bell Ready for Double Duty at Watkins Glen

Sixth on Continental Tire 150 grid ahead of return to Daytona Prototype

Watkins Glen, N.Y. (2 June 2011) – Matt Bell landed his 12th consecutive top-10 start when he placed the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GS.R sixth on the grid for tomorrow’s Continental Tire 150 at Watkins Glen International. With a lap time of 2:04.243 seconds at the 3.4-mile road course, Bell will start the sixth round of GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competition from the third row.

Bell, who earned a podium finish at the historic track in 2009, worked with co-driver John Edwards to improve the car throughout the day and posted the fifth quickest time in the day’s final practice session prior to qualifying.

“We weren’t super happy about qualifying, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to do what we always do and go to the front of the field,” said Bell. “It’s frustrating when you have a car that you can ‘smell’ the performance in and you know it’s there, but it’s just not putting it out. I think our engineer Nick Eddie really has a good idea of what needs to happen and John Edwards and myself know what needs to happen, it’s just going to be if the Camaro is going to be responsive to the changes.”

In addition to the Continental Tire final practice and 2.5-hour race tomorrow, Bell will be busy as he joins Doran Racing along with Brian Frisselle and Henri Richard in the No. 77 Daytona Prototype for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Saturday.

“Tomorrow is going to be a little different especially with the GS race tomorrow night,” offered Bell. “I’ll probably do one practice in the Daytona Prototype to get the braking points and try to get the feel of the car. The GS and Daytona Prototype are so completely different but I seemed to adjust well to it last year so I’m really looking forward to it. The GS race comes first chronologically so I’m going to focus on that tomorrow and then I can focus on the Daytona Prototype on Saturday in the morning practice for the Six Hour which is obviously a big deal as well.”

Bell will complete a Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge final practice session tomorrow prior to the Continental Tire 150 which is set to begin at 6:00 PM (ET). Saturday will see a Rolex Series practice session in the morning with the Six Hours of The Glen scheduled to start at 1:00 PM (ET). SPEED will carry coverage of the Rolex Series race on tape delay at 4:30 PM (ET).

The Continental Tire 150 will air June 12 at 5:00 PM (ET) on SPEED.

Matt Cleary
Sunday Group Management
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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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