Lonnie Wheatley, NORMAN, Okla. (February 2, 2015) – Christopher Bell finished out his first Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic Week in Australia among the elite by making the feature cut amongst a field of more than 100 competitors at Premier Speedway on January 25.
With Bell’s first whirlwind tour of Australia in the books, the next scheduled action for the 20-year-old from Norman, OK, will be on the asphalt with Late Model competition at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway on February 19-21.
Not even 24 hours after finishing up his second consecutive Chili Bowl Midget National championship feature start on January 17, Bell was Australia bound for Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic Week that encompassed four nights of competition over five days aboard the Consol Racing No. 21.
“It was a lot of fun down there, there are a lot of good people that make it a fun time,” Bell said of the week Down Under.
After getting his feet wet in a Wednesday outing at Avalon Raceway, perhaps Bell’s best run of the week came in the next night’s President’s Cup event at Mount Gambier’s Borderline Speedway where he rallied from 12th to round out the podium in third.
“It was rough and heavy,” Bell said of the Borderline circuit. “I had a really good car, I clipped someone along the way and the nose wing finally came down ten or twelve laps later. We were really on the move before that.”
From there it was on to Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway for Bell’s first crack at the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic and the Oklahoma shoe was among seven American drivers to make the feature cut in the $30,000-to-win finale among the field of 106.
After scratching out an eleventh-place finish in his Friday night preliminary event, Bell went forward from sixth to second in his Sunday night heat race to earn a front row “B” Main starting berth.
“We had a really good car on the last night, went sixth to second in the heat and was leading the B when it started pouring down rain,” Bell recounts. “When we finally restarted, we got back into traffic in the B, that’s how good we were.”
The late rain wasn’t conducive to much passing action in the feature though, with Bell making his way from 19th to finish 16th in the 40-lap finale.
“It was hammer down for 40 laps, non-stop,” Bell says.
Bell summed up the quick week with, “The Consol guys were great to race for and the fans down there are awesome, it was a great experience.”
Bell is set to return to asphalt action next aboard a Late Model at New Smyrna Speedway.
2015 Quick Stats: 12 races, 2 top-fives, 7 top-tens.
Next Up: Asphalt late model action at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway on February 19-21.
Keep Track: Keep track of Christopher Bell’s on-track action including schedule and results at http://www.christopherbellracing.com/.
If you would like to keep up with all of Christopher Bell’s racing action by having press releases e-mailed directly to you, simply send your e-mail address to Lonnie Wheatley at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.
Penning the recurring series of “The Wheatley Chronicles” articles on racinboys.com, Lonnie Wheatley provides media, public relations and more for select tracks, drivers and events. For more information, Wheatley may be contacted at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.