Backstretch Motorsports

The joke going around at Bell Motorsports has the team wanting to paint a target on its Aston Martin DBR9 so they can pick where the car will be hit next. Sometimes that’s the best thing to do when adversity is staring at you in the face…just laugh it off.

So it’s with a sense of humor - and a greater sense of urgency - that repairs have been made to Bell’s GT1 challenger in time for this week’s Generac 500 presented by Time Warner Cable at Road America. There admittedly were late nights Thursday through Saturday to get the car ready to load onto the Bell transporter Sunday night in Miami.

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LM P1
Audi achieves second Le Mans hat-trick

Capello/Kristensen/McNish win thriller
Audi R10 TDI remains unbeaten at 24 Hour classic
Eighth Audi victory out of ten starts at the Sarthe

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Rear wheel drama costs Larbre an hour

The Larbre Competition Saleen S7R (photo left) suffered a difficult start to the Le Mans 24 Hours after losing a wheel three hours into the race.

The left rear wheel detached as Christophe Bouchut braked for Tertre Rouge and pitched him off the track and deep into a gravel trap. After being hauled out by a service vehicle, Bouchut limped back to the pits for repairs.

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The Gulf-liveried Aston Martin Racing team has got off to a solid start during the first qualifying session for this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, which starts at 3pm on Saturday 14 June.

This evening’s qualifying session, which was split into two periods – 7pm to 9pm and 10pm to midnight – saw the 55 competing cars take to the track for the very first time during the Le Mans week. A final qualifying session at the same times on Thursday 12 June will determine the start grid for the race.

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The raw numbers from Sebring don’t paint a pretty picture for Bell Motorsports: their GT1 Aston Martin DBR9 piloted by Terry Borcheller, Chapman Ducote and Antonio Garcia finished 29 laps down on the class-winning Corvette of Johnny O’Connell, Ron Fellows and Jan Magnussen … and 21 laps in arrears of the sister Corvette of Olivier Beretta, Oliver Gavin and Max Papis even though the latter car lost time replacing a broken halfshaft.

Speed? Well the two Corvettes posted fastest laps of 1:57.087 and 1:57.802, respectively while the best Borcheller could manage in the DBR9 was a 1:59.802 - a two-second differential that more or less echoed the times set in practice.

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