Millville: Matt Bell Friday report

Matt Bell Impresses in Daytona Prototype Debut

Millville, NJ (16 July 2010) - Matt Bell turned his first career laps in a Daytona Prototype on Friday and impressed with his speed and adaptation as he quickly took to the 2.25-mile New Jersey Motorsports Park in the high-speed No. 77 Doran Racing McDonalds, South African Airways, PR Newswire Dallara-Ford at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

It was the first time Bell had even sat in a Daytona Prototype, although his lap times belied that fact as he set times that compared well to his teammate as well as the rest of the Rolex Sports Car Series field.

The hot Friday practice sessions made for a busy day for Bell, who will team with Dion von Moltke in the Dallara in Sunday's Rolex Sports Car Series race while also pairing with Jeff Bucknum in the No. 6 Sunoco Fuels Chevrolet Camaro in the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race on Saturday.

"Going back and forth between the cars has been even easier than I expected it to be," said Bell. "The Daytona Prototype does exactly what you want it to do, just like a huge go kart with tons of power and wings on it. I'm really pleased with how today went, and the Doran Racing guys have made things very easy for me. It has been a hot day but I couldn't be happier with how everything went. I just wanted to start slowly and learn what I was capable of, and what the car had to offer and we did just that. Now we can go through the data tonight and look at what what we can do to improve--I can not wait to get back into the car and keep building my experience and be ready to go on Sunday."

Bell's Saturday will once again be a busy one, as he will practice the Daytona Prototype before moving the the Continental Tire Challenge Camaro for qualifying and then returning to the cockpit of the Daytona Prototype for qualifying. While that already sounds like a busy day, there will still be more to come as he'll return to the driver seat of the Camaro to start the 2.5-hour Continental Tire race on Saturday afternoon.

-source: sgm