Tim Bell Set for Mid-Ohio Debut

Tim Bell Set for Mid-Ohio Debut

Matches best qualifying of the season

Contact: Matt Cleary
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Lexington, Ohio (16 September 2011) – Tim Bell matched his best qualifying result of the season to start the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge season finale – the EMCO Gears Classic presented by Key Bank – at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course from the ninth grid position after posting a quick time of 1:35.866 seconds during Friday’s 15-minute qualifying session.

Bell opened his GRAND-AM rookie season from ninth on the grid at Daytona and will again start from the inside of Row 5 as he takes the final green flag of the year at Mid-Ohio. Throughout the season, Bell has shown his strength at the start of each race moving steadily up through the field during his stint behind the wheel of the No. 14 Office Depot BMW 128i. He will look to do the same as he opens Saturday’s 2.5-hour contest before handing driving duties over to Doran Racing co-driver BJ Zacharias.

“If I had just four-tenths more, I would have been third,” said Bell of the qualifying run. “I know the car has it in it – it’s going to be a close one. Besides the car being a little tail happy, the brakes are dead on. I’m probably braking 50 feet further than anybody else on track, which is definitely going to help us during the race. Right now we just need to get the tail settled a bit. While I was out there, I was just thinking about trying to be smooth and get the power down early and get the job done.”

Bell began the session by posting a quick lap time straight away to slot into the eleventh position on the timesheet. His next lap through would be his best and vaulted him to eighth place, where he would hold station only to be bettered in the waning moments and relegated to the ninth starting spot.

While the season opening race at Daytona saw Bell’s strong qualifying effort thwarted when the No. 14 BMW was hit by a competitor, the California racer will look to run a clean race around the challenging 13-turn Ohio road course and close out his rookie season with another good result.

The EMCO Gears Classic will begin Saturday at 11:00 AM (ET) and can be followed with live online timing and scoring at www.grand-am.com. The event will broadcast on SPEED September 25 at 1:00 PM (ET).

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