Racing is never a "known quantity" and whoever says that it is, is lying. Things happen in race cars that will never happen in a street car. Even though they are closely related mechanically and electrically, the difference between the two means that things happen that are simply beyond one's control. Having said all of that, it's been a rough season so far for Tim Bell Racing, out of Huntersville, NC.
A couple months ago, I rode along with a friend down to Daytona to watch the Conti race since my good friend Brian Kleeman, who I used to shoot for in SCCA Pirelli World Challenge, had decided to run Conti this year with Tim Bell's team. They had a pretty rough weekend with their main car literally burning to the ground in pit lane due to a fuel leak. They still managed to work overnight and get the car back on track the next day starting from the pit since they missed qualifying. But the troubles were not over for the #28 and #29. Tim's #28 car made it most of the race before he lost functionality of the transmission and the sister car Brian was driving, the #29, started having overheating issues towards the end of the race and had to retire early.
Fast forward to last week in Sebring and the problems continued. I drove down to Sebring on Wednesday last week. While driving down Brian informed me that the motor in the #28 had blown and they were still waiting on a spare to be built so Tim's car was out for the weekend completely. With the team focused on #29, Brian and cordriver Brett Sandberg's Z, they tweaked setup over the course of the weekend searching for grip on the characteristically bumpy Sebring tarmac. But, it was not meant to be. Shortly after going out for the race the rear sway bar came loose, beaten into submission by the track, and the alternator quit putting out juice so the car slowly died. In Conti series a driver has to make it to the 45 min mark to get points in the car so they were trying to make it there before bringing the car in for a driver and battery change. Right around the 40 minute mark the car died completely and Brian almost wrecked when the ABS computer shut down. Towed back to the pits, the #29's day was over as well. One can only have so much bad luck in one season, and TBR hopes to regroup and go back out strong for the remainder of the season. You can find the team on Facebook to follow along, as well as, Brian Kleeman's athlete page.
Sorry for the long story but that gets everyone up to speed on the racing efforts I've been a part of so far this year.
Album:
CTSC Sebring '15 - JPMcG Photography
Fav's:
1. When I arrived, the team was doing a brake fluid flush as well as a nut and bolt check getting it ready for qualifying.
2. Brett had qualified in Daytona so it was Brian's turn this go round.
3. Seriously lacking in grip out of the corners, Brian could only muster a P15 out of 17 entries in the class.
4. The elegant simplicity of a race car's dash
5. Work continued on the car after qualifying trying to get the car the best it could be for the race.
6. Friday morning before the race the team practiced driver and tire changes which was fun to watch.
7. Brian on grid with our flag/promo girl Emily before the race during the fan walk.
8. Brian held off a dive bombing Mustang going into the hairpin who had to surrender his move and tuck back in behind the Z lest he go spinning off from lack of grip.
Thanks for looking, there's plenty more in the album to see when you have time so give it a glance!