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iTrader: (1)

Did anyone watch the race Sunday? Pretty exciting racing went on in both classes I thought. Matt Bell held off a very persistent Leh Keen the last 10 mins of the race to hold 6th place in GS which was one of the more exciting parts of the race. The RSR motorsports Mini got it's first ever win for a Mini and came out of no where to do it.

Pretty good stuff, I enjoyed this more than DP and GT.

I know Matt contributes on the site so good job to you.

JamesL

Yep... Pretty good race. The 2010 Conti season has been damn exciting. Lots of good close racing!

The Matt Bell/Leh Keen battle was awesome! Im a big fan of Keen, but it was hard not to root for the guy who regularly posts and chats with us It also looks like the Camaros are finally coming around with the allowances that Grand Am has given them.

And with the bad luck that the RSR team has had this season (cough *nic jonsson* cough cough), it was great to see a Mini finally take home a win!!

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iTrader: (1)

I actually did an HPDE with Chin at Sebring when RSR was practicing out there and they were very fast! Good for them!

Im surprised more havent posted, pretty exciting race considering a camaro caught on fire and another blew up its motor going down the strraight and engine pieces went flying.

Leh Keen is pretty awesome and was throwing that cayman every which way to get by Bell but just couldnt out drive him to pass

SiRCivic03

i was at the race in person and it was awesome. NJMP is my home track and I have tons of time out there, it was nice to see the Pros there for another year. Looking at their lines through some of the corners was neat to see. I snapped pictures of a few of the incidents that received pretty good coverage by the speed guys in the picture thread.

MBellRacing

Can't believe I didn't see this sooner!!!

Thanks for the kind words! That battle with Leh was pretty nutty. That guy knows every trick in the book learned from all those Euro racers on how to pass a car... unfortunately I attended the Bill Auberlen school of clever, legal blocking. :D

Our Camaro, indeed, has come quite a long way. Had I not been knocked off track by my former teammate, we would have had quite a good shot at a podium. The car was great. In fact, it was so great that I heard a rumor that in the post-race impound they were searching our wiring for hidden traction control modules! The Stevenson team has done an amazing job developing this car-- hopefully I'll be back next year to try it at its prime!

Maybe I'll try and post some in-car video once I find it.

Honestly though, Continental Tire and Grand-Am in general really is the place to race right now. We have some of the biggest names in racing battling with no holds barred. I have SO much fun in this class and will always come back for more as often as I'm allowed!

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iTrader: (1)

Great job Matt! Please share videos if you do get any up!

slammed_93_hatch

As i watched the battle i thought to myself "damn Lee is a hell of a lot nicer then Joey." I thought for sure he would pull a bump and run.

MBellRacing

Yeah, Leh is a good guy. He gets bumper happy as we all do, but even so, the Camaro is so big that often it is hard to slow it up much by a rear-end hit. The way Joey did it is really the only way to gain any advantage.

Stinkycheezmonky

I also enjoyed watching this Beat American LeMans by a TON for entertainment/racing value.

JamesL

You can say that again! IMO, Grand Am has a goldmine in CTSCC. With the relatively low cost of entry in the ST class(comparatively, to other pro series), you are always going to see club-racing hot shoes stick their toes in the water there... And those guys are hungry to prove themselves. Mix in a bunch of veterans and experienced pros, and it makes for fantastic racing.

And Grand Am seems to be pretty consistent with their allowances/penalties when it comes to leveling the playing field in CTSCC (although I cant say the same for Rolex). I just hope they don't do something stupid in the next decade that ruins it for everyone.


Even my GF, who becomes quite sick of all the "car talk" and racing/etc, enjoys watching the Conti races.

slammed_93_hatch

they almost fell victim to the old 'give this team that and that team this', but they pulled back in most of those allowances and things have been good.