Bell Scores 10th TOTAL Pole Award In Sebring Qualifying

Practice made perfect for Matt Bell on Thursday at Sebring International Raceway. One day after running a fast lap in a mock qualifying run in final Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge practice, Bell captured the TOTAL Pole Award in qualifying for the Microsoft Visual Studio 150.

Bell ran a track-record lap of two minutes, 15.846 (99.112 mph) in the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R to capture his 10th career TOTAL Pole Award, tying him for second on the all-time list of fast qualifiers.

Bell will be joined on the front row by teammate Andrew Davis, who ran 2:16.353 (98.744 mph) in the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro. A year ago, Davis and Robin Liddell gave the Camaro Z/28 its first victory in the series at Sebring.“Our qualifying run was perfect – just like it ran in practice,” said Bell, who will co-drive with Lawson Aschenbach. “That’s what helps this team, our forethought to put things like mock qualifying runs on our schedule. We’re taking an awesome hot rod and making a making a really good race car out of it.”Billy Johnson qualified third in the Grand Sport (GS) class driving the No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang Boss 302R, running 2:16.542 (98.607 mph). He will be joined on the second row by Brad Jaeger, who ran 2:17.029 (98.257 mph) in the No. 14 Doran Racing Nismo GT Academy Nissan 370Z. Hugh Plumb, winner of the season-opening BMW Performance 200 at Daytona International Speedway, qualified fifth in the No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche 911 with a lap of 2:17.244 (98.103 mph).