Salama opened the race from behind the wheel and delivered another blue-chip drive, running as the lead BMW in the opening stages of the race. A well-timed yellow flag saw Salama turn to pit lane as Bell jumped in to the No. 96 BMW M3. As the pit stops cycled through, Bell was leading the race. Making the most of the situation, he grew his advantage from just a few car lengths to over eight seconds. But his run right to the checkered flag was interrupted as a full course caution slowed the field with just 15 minutes remaining.

Even though the race was just the second time he ran the final leg in GS competition, Bell approached the restart like a seasoned pro, once again legging out to a two-second gap to take his second win of 2009.

“It’s fantastic to get a win on this track!” said Bell. “To be behind the wheel and take the checkered flag was a great feeling. When that last yellow flag came out and took away the lead I’d built up, it was like it took all the steam out of the effort I’d put in at that point. But the BMW M3 is so balanced and I had been as conservative as I could be with the brakes so on the restart I was able to build up my lead again, thankfully. Don did a great job in his stint and the Turner guys gave me an unbelievable pit stop and then I just had to do my job from there.”

“There are so few days in racing where everything works perfectly for you, but this was one of those days,” said Salama. “My job was just to stay out as close to the front as possible. I am not in the championship points battle, so we had the flexibility to do the driver change when we wanted to. So when that yellow flag came out, it was exactly the right time for us. Matt drove a perfect race for us today, managing the car so that when that last restart came, he had plenty of car left underneath him and no problem moving clear of the field once again.”

Birmingham, AL (19 July 2009) –  Matt Bell had a busy weekend at Barber Motorsports Park as the California youngster competed in two races during the Legacy Credit Union 200 event, running both classes of Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge competition and playing the role of race closer in both.

Bell’s first race of the weekend was on Saturday, as he returned to Street Tuner (ST) class competition with the No. 75 Honda Civic Si fielded by Compass360 Racing. Despite losing power when a header was knocked free, Bell  netted a 10th place finish as he raced to the checkered flag for the first time this season in his return to ST action.

For the GS event, Bell found himself in the unusual position of watching the qualifying session rather than his regular view from inside the Turner Motorsport BMW M3, where he’s set new records with his qualifying performances so far this season.  But Turner tapped a strong co-driver for Bell as Boris Said slotted into third on the grid with the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BME M3.

Said, who has fans in every category he competes in, and arguably fans in some that he doesn’t, took the green flag from behind the wheel and ran in the top three throughout his 43-lap opening stint, as the power difference to the eventual race-winning Fords was too great to make an impression.

As Bell took over the controls, he rejoined in eighth position before moving up the charts back into third as the race kept a relentless and all-green-flag pace.  But before he could make a return to the KONI Challenge podium, he was called into the pits for a splash of fuel. Despite trademark timely Turner pit work that saw the stop completed in the blink of an eye, the lost track position was too much to make up with so few laps remaining.

Bell brought it home a fighting fifth for another solid points result and a strong performance in his first time running the finish of a GS class event.

“The car kind of flinched, and I had to go to reserve  (fuel) and I knew we were done in terms of getting to the podium,” said Bell. “I was doing all I could to save as much of the car-fuel and tires—as I could, but it was still a handful at the end. Our stops were great, just spot-on, but there was nothing we could have hoped to do with the Mustangs. They just have way too much power for us to do anything, even on a track like this where the great balance of the BMW should work to our advantage.”

While the all-green race was what forced Bell into the pits for the extra fuel and ultimately hurt his results, it was still something that Bell enjoyed experiencing.

“I kind of liked it because no one had anything handed to them with a caution, we had to race for everything we got and be consistent all day long so as a driver, it was pretty fun and rewarding,” said Bell. “I learned a lot about how the track would change through the race from running ST yesterday and I was hoping to be able to make more of a charge at the end, but we just didn’t have the traction at the rear that we needed. This is still a solid finish and I’m pretty happy to get this experience under my belt this weekend.

Bell’s 2009 season, which roared to life with a win at Daytona with Bill Auberlen, has seen the future star check off several items on his career to-do list, something that he did once again this weekend.

“Running at the end of the race puts you against some really strong drivers, and Matt did a great job out there,” commented Boris Said. “We were just two laps short on fuel and that cost us a couple of positions but he did a great job.”

Bell will be back in action north of the border for the Grand Prix du Trois Rivieres in August.

Said ran near the front during his stint before mechanical problems forced him to pull off on the main straightaway and into the pits. Bell, who won the season-opening Fresh From Florida 200 at Daytona International Speedway, has reason to believe the team will accomplish good things this weekend at Barber as Said steps in for Auberlen, who will be racing another BMW M3 in ALMS competition this weekend.

“I’m excited to have Boris back again this weekend,” said Bell, who will target his sixth pole position of the season. “We had a great run going at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with everything going exactly to plan, but unfortunately we just didn’t make it to the finish. Hopefully we’ll be able to make up for that this weekend at Barber.

Above his ambition for another pole position will be Bell’s drive to move into a stronger position in the championship standings. With four top fives in seven starts this season, he is sixth in the point standings with 167 points, 37 behind the championship leader.

“I know that there is a pretty large gap between us and the championship leader, but I’m just going to focus on getting everything we can out of each weekend, and just see where we end up,” said Bell, who has led 72 laps this season, including at least two laps in each of the last six races.  “We had a few races that things that were out of our control happened and that really set us back, but we can’t worry about that. We just have to keep looking ahead. Hopefully Barber will play well to this BMW’s great balance and strong braking and we can get more momentum going for the second half of the season.”

Practice begins Thursday morning with a track practice day, followed by practice Friday afternoon and qualifying Saturday morning. The two-and-a-half hour race is scheduled to start at 8:20 a.m. Sunday.

TV: Jul 25, 12:00 PM ET, SPEED *

But one thing he hasn’t done since move up to GS is run the second half of the endurance events as Turner has tapped the youngster for his qualifying and race-opening talents, a strategy that has paid dividends with Bell leading over 70 laps so far this season.

However this weekend, Bell will not only get to run the opening stint of the GS race with Turner, but he’ll also get a shot at closing the Street Tuner event on Saturday as he returns to compete in the ST class with series powerhouse Compass360 Racing. Bell will be sharing the driving duties with Bret Spaude, who will qualify and open the race before turning the No. 75 Honda Civic Si machine over to Bell to charge to the finish.

Bell raced in the ST class in 2008 for Turner Motorsport as he stepped up to KONI Challenge after success in the BMW Club racing ranks. The chance to build his front-wheel drive resume with a strong team like Compass360 was one that Bell didn’t want to pass up, even though it will make for a busy weekend for the Daytona winner, with the ST Class race on Saturday evening ahead of the GS Class event on Sunday.

“This is going to be a busy weekend!” joked Bell. “But it’s a great opportunity for me to race for Compass and I want to thank Karl (Thomson, C360R principal) for making this possible. This is the kind of weekend drivers really look forward to. Qualifying and starting the races in GS has been really satisfying, but I’m also looking forward to running to the checkered flag on Saturday. I learned a lot about racing in KONI last year, but I feel like I have some unfinished business and hopefully we can make it back to the podium this weekend.”

Compass360 Racing has made quick work of the deployment of the all-new Honda Civic Si, taking 3 wins including a series record-setting 1-2-3 podium dominating performance at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Bell will also have the advantage of some level of familiarity with the car, after having impressed the team in testing the car at Mid-Ohio in June.

“Matt frankly impressed us when he tested the car last month, so we’re happy that he’s able to join us this weekend at Barber,” said Thomson. “This has been a great season so far for us, and hopefully Matt and Bret will add another chapter to that this weekend. He’s been really strong in GS this year, and we’re excited to see him close out the race on Saturday night for us.”

Practice begins Thursday morning with a track practice day, followed by practice Friday afternoon and qualifying Saturday morning. The two-and-a-half hour ST race is scheduled for 2:50 PM on Saturday, with the GS race slated to start at 8:20 a.m. Sunday.

But after making a run to the podium after scoring a track-record pole position at Watkins Glen, he was hoping that his luck had changed. Unfortunately, he might still have reason to wonder about his luck after another strong run at the front was slowed with a small mechanical setback.

After breaking the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course track record on his way to a remarkable 5th pole of the season with the Turner Motorsport No. 96 H&R Springs/StopTech Brakes BMW M3, Bell slotted into second at the start as he fought for the lead with the championship-leading Mustang. After a spirited battle in the opening laps, Bell moved into fuel and car conservation mode, which saw him pit some two laps later than the competition.

As co-driver Auberlen took over the controls and returned to the track in second, he was looking to make up ground as the two looked to return to victory circle. But his charge was hampered by brake issues and although he was able to continue to the finish, the problem and the extra pit stop meant the two had to accept a fifth place finish as the KONI Challenge heads into the second half of the 2009 season.

“I was on the same tires we’d practiced and qualified on, so I didn’t have nearly the grip that he (Mustang) did, and those cars are so fast in a straight line that there was no way I could get by,” said Bell, who despite the conditions was described by the track PA announcer as being “magic” under braking. “I’m happy that Bill was able to go back out there and at least bring the car home in one piece in fifth, because every point is important. I don’t know if we’d have had anything for the Mutangs or not today,  but it’s disappointing that we didn’t get to take the fight to them at the end of the day. But that’s racing and we’ll take these points and look to do better at Barber.”

Lexington, OH (18 June 2009)  Matt Bell is in his first season of GS Class competition in the Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge, but he’s already looking like a seasoned expert.

Driving the Turner Motorsport No. 96 H&R Springs/StopTech Brakes BMW M3 that he will co-drive with Bill Auberlen, Bell scorched to a new track record at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in qualifying on Saturday with a fast lap time of 1:33.665-seconds to take his fifth pole position of the 2009 season.

“We were chasing the set-up a little bit because the rain changed the track conditions,” said Bell. “But with all the experience that Turner Motorsport has, they dialed in the perfect set-up and gave me all the tools I needed to get the job done. The car did exactly what I wanted it to do.”

The 15-minute morning qualifying session precedes Saturday afternoon’s 1:45 PM race start, something that Bell is relishing.

“I like the chance to race and qualify on the same day—I am really in a good mindset right now so I’m looking forward to keeping this intensity up again this afternoon in the race.”

Saturday’s 2.5-hour race is slated for a 1:45 PM green flag, and will be broadcast on a tape-delayed basis by SPEED on June 28 at 12:30 PM.

Lexington, OH (18 June 2009) –  Looking at Matt Bell’s Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge race results, it’s as if the California youngster has experienced two different seasons.

In six race starts, he has experienced both the highs of a victory and three podium finishes on some legendary race tracks (1st/Daytona,  2nd/Watkins Glen International, 3rd/ Lime Rock Park), and the lows of watching as contact from competitors or mechanical complications spelled three race finishes that were far less (24th, 10th, and 15th) satisfying.
But as Bell looks ahead to the EMCO Gears Classic at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this Saturday, he’s hoping to get into a championship rhythm as he rides the wave of two consecutive podium finishes with co-driver Bill Auberlen in the Turner Motorsport No. 96 H&R Springs/StopTech Brakes BMW M3.

Bell is riding another wave with his strong qualifying performances, having won four pole positions so far this season. After scoring third on the grid in his first attempt at GS Class qualifying in Daytona, Bell has refused to take anything less than a front-row starting position, including nabbing a record run of three consecutive pole positions. And while Bell looks to once again be strong in qualifying, he’s also hoping for some continued good finishes to keep climbing in the championship standings.

“I’m not superstitious, but it seemed for a while that every time I qualified on pole, we’d have something go wrong in the race,” said Bell.  “So it was great to shake that off and accomplish the strong finishes at Lime Rock and Watkins Glen. I know that with some of the tough finishes we had earlier in the season, that put us pretty far behind in the championship contest. I plan to just keep that out of my mind, run the best race possible and see where we end up at the checkered flag. You never know what is going to happen in this sport, and there is still a lot of racing yet to go.”

Matt Bell looks to exploit his previous experience on the track, having raced on the 2.258-mile circuit last season in the ST ranks.  The race weekend will kick off with a promoter test day on Thursday, with practice on Friday and a Saturday morning qualifying session. Saturday’s 2.5-hour race is slated for a 1:45 PM green flag, and will be broadcast on a tape-delayed basis by SPEED on June 28 at 12:30 PM.

Bell opened the race from the point after breaking the track record to take his fourth pole position of the year and his fifth front row start of the season, which is his first in the GS class level.

While the result of the race was similar two what was achieved at Lime Rock Park, the race was much different for Bell. At Lime Rock, he raced at the point until the halfway point of the race, as he and Joey Hand gapped the field with a Turner Motorsport 1-2 run in the first half of the race.

But on Friday, his time behind the wheel at Watkins Glen was a much more tepid affair, as his opening stint was interrupted by several yellow flag periods.

“I wish I had the chance to have done a little more racing during my stint,” said Bell after taking part in the podium celebrations. “I never really got to stretch my legs and get into a good race rhythm.”

Bell turned the car over to Auberlen, who put on another show as he had at Daytona, scything through the field to battle for the lead late in the race. But as the track conditions changed, the situation favored the winning machine as Auberlen charged home to a second place finish. It was another good day for Turner Motorsport as the Hand/Gleason machine finished in third.

“It’s great to get on the podium and of course everyone needs points so I’m happy with this result,” said Bell. “I wish I had the chance to do more to have made it happen, but this is still a good day for us and a strong result. I think that we can pick up the momentum from here because we’d had some bad luck every time we started from the pole and now we’ve kicked that here today, so on to Mid-Ohio.”

Bell’s previous poles so far this season have been delivered in dramatic fashion, from recovering from a night in the hospital to take pole on his very first flying lap, to making the most of changing conditions to score the pole on the last lap of the session. But on Friday, Bell’s method was more straightforward as he set the fastest time to move to the top of the sheets, and then just kept on improving that time lap after lap.

And it was a good thing he did, as his constant improvement through the session saw him withstand a late-session charge from his fellow front-row starter at Lime Rock Park, who posted a lap just .022 of a second short of Bells best time as the two will once again start together on the front row on Friday afternoon.

“The Turner car has been unbelievable since the first lap of the weekend,” said Bell, “It’s great to be back on pole. We are still looking to get some good luck in the race and convert this into another race win, so hopefully that will happen this afternoon. I was driving as hard as I possibly could to just keep improving my times. The team let me know exactly where I was and fortunately we had enough to end up on top, so it’s really satisfying for me as a driver.”

Bell will not have much time to savor the achievement, as the 2.5-hour race is slated to take the green flag at 4:00 PM EDT on Friday.

After getting a running start to the season, Bell’s championship aspirations suffered significant blows in the form of two tough DNF’s, but he’s far from conceding anything just yet as he looks ahead through the KONI Challenge season.

“It would take a lot of things happening exactly right for us to get back to the top,” said Bell, who won the opening round at Daytona International Speedway to kick his GS Class campaign in gear. “But on the other hand, you just never know what is going to happen as the season plays out.  So you just have to put your head down, and be smart about getting everything you can out of each weekend points-wise and just make good decisions out on the track.”

Bell made a lot of good decisions in his Lime Rock Park outing, once again not putting a wheel wrong on his way to being part of a very good day for Turner Motorsport.

The momentum gained from his run to third place is one that Bell is looking forward to making the most of this Friday at Watkins Glen, a track where he netted one of the quickest race laps in his ST class debut last season.

“It’s an awesome track,” said Bell. ““I’m excited for the weekend. Watkins Glen is similar to Lime Rock at least as far is it suiting my driving style, and even though we probably aren’t going to get as many Turner Motorsport fans as we had at their home race on Memorial Day, the team has a really strong following up there so hopefully we can be up front at the end again.”

And while it’s been a two-week hiatus for most of his competitors this weekend, Bell has another thing going for him this weekend in the form of some extra seat time last weekend at California Speedway, campaigning another Turner Motorsport BMW as he returned to BMW Club competition behind the wheel of Auberlen’s former Speed World Challenge racer.