Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge - Sebring '15 Pics
 

Racing is never a "known quantity" and whoever says that it is, is lying. Things happen in race cars that will never happen in a street car. Even though they are closely related mechanically and electrically, the difference between the two means that things happen that are simply beyond one's control. Having said all of that, it's been a rough season so far for Tim Bell Racing, out of Huntersville, NC.

A couple months ago, I rode along with a friend down to Daytona to watch the Conti race since my good friend Brian Kleeman, who I used to shoot for in SCCA Pirelli World Challenge, had decided to run Conti this year with Tim Bell's team. They had a pretty rough weekend with their main car literally burning to the ground in pit lane due to a fuel leak. They still managed to work overnight and get the car back on track the next day starting from the pit since they missed qualifying. But the troubles were not over for the #28 and #29. Tim's #28 car made it most of the race before he lost functionality of the transmission and the sister car Brian was driving, the #29, started having overheating issues towards the end of the race and had to retire early.

Fast forward to last week in Sebring and the problems continued. I drove down to Sebring on Wednesday last week. While driving down Brian informed me that the motor in the #28 had blown and they were still waiting on a spare to be built so Tim's car was out for the weekend completely. With the team focused on #29, Brian and cordriver Brett Sandberg's Z, they tweaked setup over the course of the weekend searching for grip on the characteristically bumpy Sebring tarmac. But, it was not meant to be. Shortly after going out for the race the rear sway bar came loose, beaten into submission by the track, and the alternator quit putting out juice so the car slowly died. In Conti series a driver has to make it to the 45 min mark to get points in the car so they were trying to make it there before bringing the car in for a driver and battery change. Right around the 40 minute mark the car died completely and Brian almost wrecked when the ABS computer shut down. Towed back to the pits, the #29's day was over as well. One can only have so much bad luck in one season, and TBR hopes to regroup and go back out strong for the remainder of the season. You can find the team on Facebook to follow along, as well as, Brian Kleeman's athlete page.

Sorry for the long story but that gets everyone up to speed on the racing efforts I've been a part of so far this year.

Album:

CTSC Sebring '15 - JPMcG Photography

Fav's:

1. When I arrived, the team was doing a brake fluid flush as well as a nut and bolt check getting it ready for qualifying.
http://jpmcgphotography.smugmug.com/...MG_6411-XL.jpg

2. Brett had qualified in Daytona so it was Brian's turn this go round.
http://jpmcgphotography.smugmug.com/...MG_9942-XL.jpg

3. Seriously lacking in grip out of the corners, Brian could only muster a P15 out of 17 entries in the class.
http://jpmcgphotography.smugmug.com/...MG_6669-XL.jpg

4. The elegant simplicity of a race car's dash
http://jpmcgphotography.smugmug.com/...MG_6723-XL.jpg

5. Work continued on the car after qualifying trying to get the car the best it could be for the race.
http://jpmcgphotography.smugmug.com/...MG_6809-XL.jpg

6. Friday morning before the race the team practiced driver and tire changes which was fun to watch.
http://jpmcgphotography.smugmug.com/...MG_6900-XL.jpg

7. Brian on grid with our flag/promo girl Emily before the race during the fan walk.
http://jpmcgphotography.smugmug.com/...MG_6948-XL.jpg

8. Brian held off a dive bombing Mustang going into the hairpin who had to surrender his move and tuck back in behind the Z lest he go spinning off from lack of grip.
http://jpmcgphotography.smugmug.com/...MG_0103-XL.jpg

Thanks for looking, there's plenty more in the album to see when you have time so give it a glance!

Awesome action!

:tiphat:

Nice shots Patrick.
I bet you hated spending time with Emily. :rolleyes:

Great pics. Sorry to see the team struggle this year. Hopefully they can recover and finish strong :driving:

Any video links?

Let's just say my dorky self laying next to her on Vero Beach last Saturday was hilarious. There was a group of douchebag-ish surfer dudes wakeboarding nearby and they were all looking at me like "How the......?" :bowrofl: We had a great day, hopefully we can have some more like it soon ;)

Me too, blue. What's so bad is we finally got the World Challenge car dialed in really well towards the end of last season and Brian reported that this car was "almost undriveable". Bear in mind that Brian held the SCCA T2 track record for several years at Sebring so it's not like he doesn't know the course. It's one of his favorite tracks, in fact. We just could not find a happy medium with our suspension setup between the coil stiffness, shock settings, sway bar settings and alignment.

Not yet, unfortunately we forgot to turn the GoPro on for the race so we only have a couple clips from qualifying with Brian driving. As soon as that video is uploaded, I will post a link!

Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge - Sebring '15 Pics
 

I'm with the surfers. :b

Cheers to ya Brian

https://scontent-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...a8&oe=55B91372

:stirthepot:

This is really cool! thanks for posting.

Great pix and what wheels are they running???

Glad to share! Thanks for looking!

Something from ForgeLine, I believe. I am doing a shop tour next weekend hopefully, I will pay more attention when I do.

Very cool...thanks!

Found em:

Forgeline: GA1R Forged Aluminum One-Piece Monoblock Open Lug Racing Wheel

Thanks for the information.

Thanks for the pics bro!!! and sad to know all the problems that the team are having on their cars :( I hope they can resolve those problems soon

What you have to do to build a competitive race car for IMSA GS class or PWC GTS class out of a Z makes it inherently unreliable unfortunately. They are basically a cost-no-factor N/A build while maintaining the 3.7L original displacement (a rule requirement in both series). Conversely, the Mustang's and Camaro's are mostly just running an intake, headers and exhaust, typically with a restricter of varying size, and the motor is a lot closer to stock making it a lot more reliable.

delete

370Z is outclassed by V8s
 

I love my 370Z Nismo and I love watching them race in both series. While they sometimes do well and earn a podium now and then, I don't see how they'll ever be competitive against the V8s. They just don't have enough motor to be consistent front runners and realistically contend for titles, at least under the rules as they are.

From a purely business standpoint I don't know why one would choose to run a 370Z or other marque with a V6 in a class ruled by V8s. Like you said it's way more efficient to run a V8 at lower power than it's capable of than to run a V6 flat out and straining against its limits.

I still root for the Zs and watch every race but I think they're outclassed and will never be consistently in contention. Too bad they can't drop a GTR motor in one, but then the GTR is not really competitive anymore either.

The GTR GT3's that Always Evolving are running in PWC are doing quite well this year. The main problem with PWC GTS class and CTSCC GS class is that it's not a GT4 spec car. If all the competitors in those classes met FIA GT4 specs, it would be an even playing field but they don't :(