Heartbreaker for Bryan Sellers at Barber
Driveline Failure Ends Young American’s Shot at Birmingham CTSCC Win
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., April 8, 2013 – “That’s why they run the race.” It’s an old saying but one that rings especially true in Bryan Sellers’ ears after the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) Barber 200. The Braselton, Ga.-resident was biding his time, pressuring the lead car with less than 30-minutes remaining in the two-hour, 30-minute race at Birmingham, Alabama’s Barber Motorsports Park when a driveline failure ended his day. The Saturday, April 6 event was the third GS-class race of the season and, like the two previous events, the No. 46 Trim-Tex Drywall Products/BCKSTGR Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3 came all too close to taking the win but coming up just short. Another heartbreaker for a team that seems all but certain to win this season.
Mark Boden (Winnetka, Ill.) started the race 13th. The co-driver and team owner had a strong run during his stint turning the car over to Sellers with over half the race remaining. The strategy, as it has since the pairing began in 2012, worked extremely well. In his trademark fashion of remarkable restarts, Sellers jumped from fifth to second at the conclusion of a yellow flag period shortly after taking the wheel. With approximately one-hour to go, the former open-wheel racing champion made his last stop for service from the Fall-Line crew and then worked his way back to second-place.
With 33-minutes before the checkered flag, Sellers hounded the leader, threatening on every turn. The 2012 American Le Mans Series’ Most Popular Driver award-winner was pressuring the eventual race-winning Camaro so much that a pass seemed inevitable. Then, the unthinkable happened instead. With 25-minutes still to race, Sellers pulled the white, red and blue BMW off the track. A driveline failure left the car and Sellers’ hopes of his first CTSCC race win of 2013 along the side of the 2.3-mile, 17-turn facility in central Alabama.
Sellers will miss the next CTSCC race to run the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón at Long Beach, Calif. The Falken Tire factory driver is committed to the street course while the Fall-Line-entered BMW races at his home track of Road Atlanta on April 20. It is the only CTSCC race Sellers is expected to miss in 2013. He returns to the Trim-Tex/Fall-Line BMW for Round Five of the Sports Car Challenge at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on June 15. As an Ohio-native, that race will be doubly important for Sellers.
The Barber 200, part of the GRAND-AM Porsche 250 weekend, will be broadcast live on www.SPEED2.com with a television broadcast on SPEED, April 13 at 2 p.m. ET.
Quotes
Bryan Sellers:
On the moment the driveline failure occurred: “It was a very depressing moment. We were biding our time at the end of the race and conserving tires. When we had our failure, my first reaction was denial quickly followed by biter disappointment. Everyone on the Trim-Tex/Fall-Line team works so hard and to have our race end like that is difficult to swallow. There was no warning. It happened very quickly. Quite often when it's driveline related you feel something but not this time. It was very sudden.”
On the race’s key restart: “It was a very good restart. It is so difficult to pass you have to take the opportunities when they are presented. I was able to get a good run coming off the last corner and get a few spots. I wasn't able to get as many going into turn one as I wanted but a hole opened up in the brake zone to turn five. I was able to take advantage of it and gain a couple more spots.”
On his strategy entering the final half-hour of the race: “We were very strong in the last stint. The tires went off very quickly in the previous stint so my goal was to preserve the tires as long as possible. That's what we were doing behind the Camaro. When I got enough pressure from third I was going to try and make a move for the lead, unfortunately that was never able to happen.”
On missing the next race: “It is always difficult to step out of your race car! Especially when you had a great car and a bad result in the most recent race. I have faith that the guys will have the Trim-Tex/Fall-Line BMW fully prepared for Atlanta and they’ll bounce back. Mid-Ohio will be huge! For all reasonable mathematics we will be out of the championship chase and our goal will be solely to win as many races as possible. I hope we will be able to make that happen starting at Mid-Ohio.”
For more on Bryan Sellers, please visit him on the web at "> www.BryanSellersRacing.com . Follow Bryan on Twitter ("> www.Twitter.com/BryanSellers ) and LIKE him on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/BryanSellersRacing . Tune-in to Bryan’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/BryanSellersRacing .
Learn more about Fall-Line Racing, visit www.Fall-LineMotorsports.com .
For more on the Grand-Am Sports Car Challenge go to www.GRAND-AM.com .
Visit www.FalkenTire.com for more on Team Falken Tire. Learn more about the American Le Mans Series at www.ALMS.com .
Go R/C racing with Bryan at www.HPIRACING.com .
Stayed charged with Batter Tender at www.BatteryTender.com .
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