Birmingham: Matt Bell qualifying report

Bell Seventh on Barber 250 Grid

Leeds, AL (9 April 2010) - With a bevy of Ford Mustangs taking the first four spots on the qualifying grid, Matt Bell led the brigade of Chevrolet challengers as he qualified the No. 6 Sunoco Race Fuels Camaro seventh on the grid for Saturday's Barber 250 with a fast lap time of 1:37.749-seconds on the 2.3-mile Barber Motorsports Park natural terrain road course. Bell will open the 2.5 hour race from behind the wheel before turning the machine over to Stevenson Motorsports co-driver Jeff Buknam for round three of the 2010 GRAND-AM Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge championship.

Given that there are seven Mustangs in the top-ten, the qualifying result was relatively satisfying for Bell as he posted the fastest lap of the multiple Camaros entered in the race. The machine is racing in just its fourth-ever GRAND-AM event and the team is quickly learning what the big Camaro likes to go fast.

"We had some clutch issues that slowed us down a little bit on that lap, but it's great that Stevenson is continuing to improve every time we go out," said Bell. "Hopefully that won't be an issue in the race. It's kind of a gamble for the race because we just don't know what the track is going to be like after all the IndyCar and Rolex cars run. I know it will be a challenge--the rack will probably be slick, and for a car thats as big and heavy as ours is, I think its going to be a handicap. But we will see what happens in the race. It'd be great to just get as much track time as we can during the race and bring home a good points finish tomorrow."

-source: sgn