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Bell Adds To Tally At Donington |
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Monday, 31 July 2006 |
BMW racer survives chaos for top ten finish
Barrow-upon-Humber race driver Martyn Bell survived a chaotic race weekend at Donington Park to claim his third top ten finish of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season.
Martyn and the Geoff Steel Racing team enjoyed another solid race meeting, as the BMW 320i claimed another three finishes– with the highlight coming in the final race of the day when damaged
steering couldn’t stop Martyn surviving to finish in tenth place,
adding another championship point to his tally in the process.
Qualifying for the 16th round of the season had seen the BMW produce
its best performance of the year so far, as Martyn posted a time just
over two seconds off the pace set by pole-sitter Gordon Shedden.
Heading into the opening race, the team were hopeful of a good result
and Martyn duly delivered, fighting with the Lexus of Adam Jones
throughout and overhauling the MG of Jason Hughes on the last lap to
finish 14th.
Race two proved to be a little frustrating for Martyn, as a spin on the
opening lap dropped him to the back of the pack and also nursing two
flat-spotted tyres he was unable to overhaul the Alfa Romeo of Mark
Smith to fight for what he felt was a possible top ten finish.
However in the final race of the day, live on ITV1, the top ten result
arrived – although it wasn’t without drama for Martyn and the team.
First of all the BMW was lucky not to get caught up in a start-line
accident that forced four cars to retire and the race to be
red-flagged, and then when the race did get underway, contact with the
Lexus of Adam Jones left Martyn to complete the race with damaged
steering.
That problem, added to wet weather and dry tyres, meant conditions were
far from ideal, but a determined drive from Martyn saw him claim the
final point.
With a number of the Independent drivers retiring from the final race,
Martyn was also able to match his best finish amongst the Independents
in sixth, with the weekend yielding nine points in the Independents
championship.
“We’ve had a good weekend,” Martyn said afterwards. “Qualifying went
well, we aren’t too far off the pace now, and then in the first race I
had a good battle with Adam in the Lexus. I caught Jason Hughes and
passed him for 14th place in a race that saw no retirements so I was
happy with that. In the second race I got caught behind Mark Smith
after a spin but I just couldn’t get past him so I beat myself up a bit
about that because I felt I could have caught the Lexus again and got a
top ten.
“The last race was a bit of a lottery but the reason I was slow was
because me and Adam were battling at Hollywood and neither of us would
give and we hit each other and it damaged the steering. I kept radioing
in to the team to say that I wasn’t coming in because I counted eleven
cars and I knew that if one fell off that there was a point there for
us. It isn’t how I want to score points, but I think that the
performance of the team over the weekend deserved one and we are
continuing to make steps forward.”
With the BMW continuing to improve, team boss Geoff Steel was also happy with how the weekend had progressed.
“We have a better understanding of the car, Martyn has a better
understanding of the car and I feel that we have made steady progress,
although we still have distance to make up,” he said. “However, we are
no longer looking for a lot of time and this weekend we were only two
seconds off the pace of the quickest cars. We have definitely made
progress and we can keep doing that.”
The next race takes place at Snetterton in two weeks time.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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