Bryan Sellers Has Back-to-Back GRAND-AM Battles at The Glen

“The last 15 minutes we had in the CTSCC race is what you live for as a racecar driver”

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y., July 2, 2012 – Two races, two great battles and two very different results. Bryan Sellers came to Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International with an eye towards doubling his pleasure by driving in two major GRAND-AM-sanctioned race events in two days: the June 30 Continental Tire 150 and the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on July 1. He did enjoy two epic battles during his time in both events but came away with two different outcomes as a result. In Saturday’s Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC), the Braselton, Ga.-resident scored a fifth-place finish for his effort in the No. 46 BCKSTGR/Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3 Coupe. On Sunday, Sellers had another great battle before an accident while Sellers was not in the car relegated the No. 66 Forgeline TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry to 19th.

The CTSCC event began in great style with the Fall-Line Motorsports-prepared BMW M3 setting the pace for the two practice sessions leading into Friday qualifying. Teammate Mark Boden (Winnetka, Ill.) qualified and started the BCKSTGR car on the 3.4-mile, 17-turn “Long Course” at “The Glen”. Boden’s stint placed the No. 46 perfectly for the team’s pit strategy as Sellers took over the wheel for the final one-hour and 49-minutes of the two-hour and 30-minute race. Sellers then began to pick-off the competition using the momentum of his laps and a strong tire to overcome some deficiencies of the BMW under the current CTSCC GS class rules package. Within 40 minutes he had moved the blue and white BMW into the top-ten. Taking advantage of his skill on restarts, the former open-wheel racing champion moved into sixth with 39 minutes remaining and then passed his teammate for fifth with 20 minutes left on the clock.

If getting by his Fall-Line teammate was not difficult enough, Sellers now had an even more challenging battle on his hands. A nose-to-tail fight with the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro of John Edwards raged for the final 15 minutes of the race. The battle lasted to the checkered flag with Sellers having an edge through several corners. However, local cautions in those turns kept him from making the pass. With momentum lost, the Camaro would pull away from the BMW until Sellers reeled him back in to face the same restricted corners again. The No. 46 would take fifth just 0.386 seconds off the tail of the Camaro. The result was the team’s second best of the season – they opened with a third at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

If Saturday’s nearly two-hour stint was not enough, Sellers now had six hours of Rolex Series competition to share the No. 66 Forgeline Porsche with Ben Keating (Victoria, Texas) and Damien Faulkner (Ireland). He drew the second stint of the three-driver rotation and used it to move the black Porsche further forward. In a great coincidence, Sellers’ Team Falken Tire teammate Wolf Henzler (Germany) was in a TRG team car, the No. 67, and also second in the rotation. This would set-up an unusual battle for the friends.

The two teammates battled stint after stint, nose-to-tail edging each other further up the running order. Sellers would eventually move the No. 66 up to second-place in the GT standings pitting just ahead of the No. 67. He turned the Forgeline Wheels racer over to Keating under a late-race yellow. As the flag waved the field back to green, several cars stacked-up in front of the Texan who was caught in the melee sending the Porsche hard into the wall to the right of the track and then across the rushing field into the retaining wall on the left side of the track. Keating was uninjured but the accident ended the day for the No. 66. Sellers would be scored 19th in his return to the TRG operation.

After four races in five weeks, the CTSCC will not race again until the Brickyard Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27. Sellers will return to single-duty in the cockpit of the No. 46 BCKSTGR/Fall-Line Motorsports BMW for the event.

SPEED will broadcast the Continental Tire 150 on tape-delay Saturday, July 14 at 1 p.m. (ET). Live timing and scoring and additional news of both the CTSCC and Rolex Series can be found at www.Grand-Am.com .

Quotes

Bryan Sellers:

On the CTSCC race: “The 46 car was pretty good all weekend. The Fall-Line guys did a great job preparing the BCKSTGR BMW and with the race strategy. We were actually pretty well balanced the whole weekend. We had pretty good grip level and that really helped us on the overall lap. We also had really good tire longevity. I ran two hours on one set of tires and they held up and we were still able to fight at the end of the race with the Camaro. That was a big part of our success this weekend because we were so good on long runs. We were able to be creative on fuel strategy knowing we could trust the tires to be there. That’s pretty unusual for Watkins Glen. In addition to that, we were really strong through the esses and there is a lot of time to be gained or lost there. So, the other places where we lost on the track, the esses evened it out. It was tight competition out there but we didn’t come-away with any damage which was a first for us in a couple of races.”

On the battle at the end of the CTSCC race: “CTSCC is so tough because you find yourself at the back of the pack for one reason or the other. That is why the races are always won in the last 15 to 20 minutes because that is when it all plays out and the best cars cycle to the front. It certainly held true in this race. You had the best cars, the best drivers, up front at the end. Everyone ran clean but it was super hard racing. People were leaning on one-another and rubbing but no one was intentionally trying to spin you to get by. That was fun. The last 15 minutes we had in the CTSCC race is what you live for as a racecar driver! It is all about getting to run those last 15 minutes.”

On the Six Hours of The Glen: “Watkins Glen is one of those places that you have to plan the pass so early on. It is a complete mind game about how to come through the field here. We had a good run going and we just ended it in a very unfortunate circumstance. I thought we were putting together a great race. We were doing our own thing. We were executing on everything we needed to execute on as a team. I think that we probably would have ended-up somewhere in the top-five. We didn’t have the outright speed of some of the other cars. We weren’t going to win or probably be on the podium but we were going to get a good solid finish. Ben [Keating] had done such a great job and to get caught out in other people’s mistakes is just shame, especially a good as he had been.”

On racing against Wolf Henzler: “I can tell you, I like racing with Wolf way better than against him. He is definitely someone you want on your side instead of against you. He’s clearly one of the best in the business and you always want someone like that on your side. It was fun when we ran nose-to-tail for awhile and to come up through the field together. It was nice to have him on the same program at TRG but I can tell you I’d way rather drive with Wolf in my car. I hope this is the last time for while I race against him.”

On racing with TRG again: “When you look at the history of TRG, especially the endurance races, you know you’re coming to a team that knows how to win these races. It’s been awhile since I last raced with TRG. It is kind of like going home again. There was no awkward moment of trying to see how the operation works. They still have a lot of the same guys I worked with before so I just stepped back into without a problem.”

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 .

Learn more about Fall-Line Racing, visit www.Fall-LineMotorsports.com .

Information on the TRG No. 66 Porsche can be found at www.TheRacesGroup.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.

Go R/C racing with Bryan at www.HPIRACING.com .

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