The Tiger Racing Boss 302S started the 2012 SCCA World Challenge season like it did most of all last year – on top of the podium in the GTS class. The win didn’t come without difficulties, though. To start things off, Paul Brown, the usual driver of the No. 50 Boss 302S, was sidelined to due minor surgery and Justin Bell was brought in at the last minute to replace him. Bell is an experienced road racer, but managed to only qualify the Boss 302S in 7th on Friday afternoon thanks to trouble with slower traffic.
Bell made up for it in the race, though, taking advantage of multiple restarts after yellow flags to move up in the running order. With just a few laps to go he passed GTS leader Peter Cunningham after the final restart. He then held off a late charge from Cunningham and was decidedly pleased to see a final full-course caution period come out with just minutes to go in the race, preserving his victory.
“[Cunningham] just didn’t come out quite as well on that restart as he had done before,” Bell said. “I knew I was really good on the brakes to the end. I was fully committed to my brake zone. He’s so fast in that car. That car is so tidy. Ours is a very heavy car, and he was fast on the last half of the track and I was fast on the first. Before that last yellow, when those two cars crashed, I knew going in there that I would have probably one lap to do before the full-course and I was behind one backmarker, a TC car.
“I was like, ‘I’m screwed here,’ because he was holding me up. He came to go down the outside and hey, the full-course yellows were coming out so my car just got really wide. Then, the yellows came it. It was wonderful for the team, for eBay Motors and Mobile. Paul Brown is sitting at home, so it was nice to do that for him and, obviously, also for the [Children's Tumor Foundation] kids that I’m here for.”
Jason von Kluge, of Ann Arbor, Mich., finished in third place in GTS in the No. 19 Steeda Autosports Ford Mustang Boss 302S.
The St. Petersburg event is a double header with the second race beginning at 11:00am EST later today. Justin Bell will start the race in second place in the GTS class, and von Kluge will start in fourth.
