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Bell Delighted With Season Opener |
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Tuesday, 03 April 2007 |
AllAboutProperty.com driver take major steps forward
Although he was unable to secure the points finish he was hoping for, Martyn Bell declared himself ecstatic with the opening weekend of racing in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch.
The Team AllAboutProperty.com driver was one of the most improved drivers on race day as the BMW 320i E46 produced arguably it’s strongest performance to date, allowing the Barrow-upon-Humber race ace to finish just shy of the points in all three races held on the tight and twisty Indy Circuit.
With a solid test session in Spain alongside driver coach Kelvin Burt
prior to the meeting boosting confidence throughout the team, Martyn
went into the weekend looking for a notable up-turn in fortunes after a
difficult debut season in 2006. Having used the two free practice
sessions on Saturday to dial the car in, Martyn then qualified in 18th
place on the 26 car grid, albeit just 1.1 seconds off the pole position
time of Team RAC’s Colin Turkington.
Confident of running with the pack when racing kicked off, Martyn then
did just that in the opening race and climbed into the top ten before a
slight mistake cost him valuable time and saw him slip back to 13th
place at the finish, only five seconds away from Vauxhall works driver
– and multiple touring car champion – Fabrizio Giovanardi in tenth
place. Race two also saw Martyn running strongly towards the top ten
although the sheer volume of traffic would prove to be a problem as
back-markers hampered his challenge while fighting for position with
the Arkas Racing Astra driven by Erkut Kizilirmak, leaving Martyn 13th
for the second race in succession and once again just five seconds away
from a points finish.
The final race of the weekend saw Martyn secure his highest finish as
he took eleventh place, after a brief off into the gravel saw him lose
touch with the leading pack. However, after a hard fought battle with
the MG of Jason Hughes, Martyn was able to come home at the head of the
second group of cars to end his opening weekend of racing on a high.
“To have been regularly in the top half makes me absolutely ecstatic
after last year, it really does,” he said. “Once the confidence goes
up, it takes you to another level and we just need to raise our game to
be able to run consistently in the top ten. The car is certainly
capable of it, I feel that I am too, and with Kelvin on board we can
push forward. We spent time looking at the telemetry over the weekend
and are understanding the car, which I feel is a big difference for us.
Let’s just hope that we can now get the E46 closer to the pace of the
E90s.
“It was really great to be able to go onto the track and race the car –
and it was also nice to be lapping people rather than being lapped
myself as was the case last season! As hard as it is to say this, last
year we were gifted things on track but this weekend we went on track
and earned our results, which is a massive boost. We are now in a
position to go out on track and race.
“Brands Hatch isn’t my favourite circuit and if you had said on Friday
that I would get the results that I got, then I’d have taken it. So I’m
really happy with his the weekend has panned out and I can’t wait to
get to Rockingham, which I think will really suit the BMW.”
Martyn is out in action next at Rockingham on the weekend of 21/22 April.
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