Chevy Racing–CAMARO Z/28.R AT ROAD AMERICA: Bell Qualifies Third for Stevenson Motorsports

CAMARO Z/28.R AT ROAD AMERICA: Bell Qualifies Third for Stevenson Motorsports
Two Camaro Z/28.Rs in top-five of GS qualifying at Road America

· Bell, Lally were GS race winners at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
· Davis fifth in No. 6 Stevenson Camaro; Curran leads CKS Autosport effort
· Chevrolet holding class manufacturer championship lead

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Aug. 8, 2014) – The Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R holds two of the top five staring spots on the grid for Saturday’s Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race at Road America. Stevenson Motorsports’ Matt Bell was third quickest in qualifying for the Grand Sport (GS) class Friday with a lap of 1:22.934 (101.955 mph) in the team’s No. 9 Camaro Z/28.R that he shares with Andy Lally.

In its first season of competition, the Camaro Z/28.R has won four races – including one at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the Bell/Lally duo. Those victories moved Chevrolet into the lead of the GS manufacturer championship. Bell also was part of the winning Camaro effort in 2011 at Road America.

Stevenson Motorsports’ Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell have the other three wins and are second in the GS driver standings. Davis qualified fifth in the No. 6 Camaro Z/28.R with a lap of 2:23.114 (101.827 mph).

Eric Curran led CKS Autosport’s qualifying efforts with a 2:23.418 (101.611) to place ninth in his No. 01 Camaro Z/28.R. Ashley McCalmont set a best time of 2:25.509 (100.151 mph) in CKS Autosport’s No. 00 Z/28.R

“Road America is always a difficult challenge,” said Lisa Talarico, Chevrolet Program Manager for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. “That was a job well done by Matt Bell and the Stevenson Motorsports team to qualify third on the grid. To have two of our Camaro Z/28.R races cars in the first three rows for Saturday’s race gives us a solid start to fight. The goal this weekend is the same as always – score the maximum number of points for Chevrolet in the GS manufacturer championship.”

MATT BELL, NO. 9 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO Z/28.R
“Everyone at Stevenson Motorsports and Team Chevy have turned in another great performance getting our cars ready for the race. It’s never easy to be successful here, and it takes the right engineering and strategy, which I’m confident we have with our Camaro Z/28.R. Yesterday was kind of weird. The session in which I was supposed to get some time was a combination of red flags, mechanical stuff going on and testing some parts that took awhile to put on, take off…that kind of thing. We just kind of got behind the game a little bit. I was just a little bit nervous coming into today because I just hadn’t had any time in the car really. I think I had like three timed laps in the car all day yesterday, so a little nervous. But, we’ve been here before and the Chevrolet Camaro has done very well here before. Road America was the first place any Chevrolet product won in the GS class. That is an awesome and cool thing there. “We tweaked and tuned the car a little bit. We did some very smart testing. We weren’t stickering up (with new tires), and we weren’t always trying for the qualifying setup. We figured if we were smart enough to figure out how the car felt on old tires, it would still be pretty fast on new tires. So that is what we did. We did sacrifice a little bit for qualifying. I don’t think we had pole, but I think we are right where we need to be. If we are this fast on new tires, and we have been testing and tuning solely for old tires, kind of end of stint stuff, we are in a really good place. I’ve never won from pole, but I have won from third. So I’m very happy starting from P3.”

ANDREW DAVIS, NO. 6 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO Z/28.R
“Qualifying was very hard-fought. This series is so competitive; that was by far my best lap in the car. I was proud of the guys because they worked hard. They have been under the car and working so hard today, just making change after change, and more great changes for qualifying. That was the raciest the car has felt. I had a really good lap. I pushed the car as hard as I could and certainly used up every inch of the track here at Road America that I could. And that was the quickest lap I’ve run yet in our Stevenson Camaro Z/28.R. We have to look at the season and the championship. We’re still in a good, safe striking distance for the start of the race and hopefully we’ll be able to hang in that area and get some points. We’re just at a little bit of a deficit on top speeds and that hurts us here at Road America with the long straights. But still we’ve got a good car to fight with so I was happy with the car in qualifying and the effort put forth by the team.”