I hung out with the Rolex 24 winning Bell Motorsports team for most of the weekend. Thanks to Jim Bell, Bernie Van Hamond, Forest Barber, Andy Pilgrim, Terry Borcheller and Christian Fittipaldi for putting up with me the whole time.

Here are some pics I took over the weekend...


JMB Racing Ferrari 360GT


Christian Fittipaldi's helmet


Chip Ganassi's Riley and Scott driven by Pruett, Papis, Morales and Dixon


Bell Motorsports Doran driven by Terry Borcheller, Forest Barber, Andy Pilgrim and Christian Fittipaldi


Gunnar Racing's Fabcar driven by Jeannette, Petty, Newman and Brockman


Race start, Terry jumps from 3rd to 1st in the first corner. Crew is stoked!


Christian ready for his first stint


Andy helping Christian get belted in during the driver change


Christian jumping back in after only a 2 hour break, after a 2 hour stint!


Bernie changing the left front


Howard Boss Motorsports Crawford driven by Wallace, Earnhardt and Stewart


Andy taking over from Terry


Terry belting Andy in


Calvin Fish doing his thing


Bernie keeping track of laps


Howard Boss Motorsports Crawford driven by Leitzinger, EFR, Brule and Johnson


Wallace at speed


Kevin Doran's Lista sponsored entry swapping the rear end. Those are Stoptech brake rotor hats, by the way! All Doran cars, including the race winning Bell Motorsports entry come with Stoptech rotor hats.


Terry Borcheller and Craig Stanton win the Grand-Am Cup GS class


Chuck Goldsborough's Grand-Am Cup ST Lexus


Don Istook's Grand-Am Cup GS Audi S4


Porshe Fabcar in the garage

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
http://www.teamSMR.com

 

Nice pictures Gary. Thanks for sharing.
Rob

 

VERY good pics thanks for posting, you should have snatched Christian's helmet j/k Looked like fun!

 

Nice pics!!

I was hoping to see pictures of that white Porsche GT that backed into the tire wall... that poor team lost two cars if I remember correctly.

 

...and the crowd goes wild!

 

Nice, huh?

One of the biggest U.S. races of the year, and no one is there. Maybe they're all waiting to spend their money on the D1 drifing event

(sigh)

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
http://www.teamSMR.com

 

Excellent pictures, Gary. I didn't know you were in the pits with Bell, and sorry we weren't formally introduced. There is always the next race...

Take care,

Andie

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GarySheehan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Nice, huh?

One of the biggest U.S. races of the year, and no one is there. Maybe they're all waiting to spend their money on the D1 drifing event

(sigh)

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
http://www.teamSMR.com</TD></TR></TABLE>

It'll take awhile for GA to gain momentum I think. Remember last year the grid was pretty weak so naturally there are gonna be less fans. GA just has to build a following the way ALMS has. At the 12 Hours of Sebring there are typically over 100K

With such a strong grid of DP's if the Frances play it right I'm sure the 24 can get that kind of attendance too.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GarySheehan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Nice, huh?

One of the biggest U.S. races of the year, and no one is there. Maybe they're all waiting to spend their money on the D1 drifing event

(sigh)

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
http://www.teamSMR.com</TD></TR></TABLE>

That you are correct. America is full of a sea of idiots, and much of these people lack the attention span for road courses. They want to see everything at the same time, so ovals are what they want.

It's quite dissappointing as the GA Cup is such a promising series. I'll definitely be at least one GA Cup race this year (VIR at the least)... now I just need a larger vacation allowance from work (federal position in the works)...

 

My picture contribution to this thread:

 

Great pics from both of you, thanks for sharing.