Bryan Sellers opens 2012 season
with Daytona Podium
Dual Weekend Reaps Joy and
Disappointment for Rising Star
Bryan Sellers opened the 2012
sports car season with two impressive driving performances at Daytona
International Speedway (DIS) this past week. The 50th Anniversary of
the Rolex 24 At Daytona dual-event weekend reaped both joy and
disappointment for the Braselton, Ga.-resident. Sellers captured a
third-place finish in the BMW Performance 200 Continental Tire Sports
Car Challenge (CTSCC) race on Friday, January 27 in the No. 46
BCKSTGR/Fall-Line BMW M3 Coupe having led the race late in the going.
In Saturday-Sunday's main event, the young American saw the other-side
of racing, tasting the disappointment of a great drive turned bad.
Lengthy repairs would drop the No. 17 FOAMETIX/Burtin Racing with
Goldcrest Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from winning contention to a
33rd-place finish in the twice-around-the-clock Rolex Sports Car Series
race which took the green flag on January 28.
The CTSCC event provided an
excellent launch to the season-long effort for Sellers and Fall-Line
Motorsports. Starting 12th, teammate/owner Mark Boden (Winnetka, Ill.)
worked the No. 46 towards the front of the field early. When Sellers
took the wheel, he left little question that a victory was his sole
focus. The former open-wheel racing champion moved the BMW into the
top-spot while being chased by the eventual event winner. With the
high-banks of the DIS oval making such a large part of the 3.56-mile,
12-turn speedway road course, horsepower and drafting have a
substantial impact. Despite holding the advantage in the infield,
Sellers eventually relinquished the lead to the No. 61 Mustang on the
oval. The No. 61 was able to pull away leaving Sellers without a
drafting partner. Now in second with a wide gap to the lead, Sellers
was a sitting duck to the No. 48 team car. Unable to fight the draft he
was giving to his teammate, Sellers lost second-place but would take
the checkered flag in a close third-place. The finish puts Sellers and
Boden in prime position in the championship which moves to Barber
Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala., March 30-31.
In the 50th Anniversary of the
Rolex 24, Sellers looked primed to better his CTSCC success and
possibly even his 2011 Rolex 24 runner-up finish. Sharing the No. 17
Porsche with past Rolex 24-winner Jack Baldwin (Marietta, Ga.), team
owner Claudio Burtin (Marietta, Ga.), Sebastian Asch (Germany) and
Martin Ragginger (Stuttgart, Germany), the team was a dark horse
contender in the 54-car field. With Ragginger starting, Sellers
followed owner Burtin into the Porsche. Taking the wheel two-hours and
30-minutes into the race, Sellers charged the car from 22nd to 19th in
ten minutes! He continued the controlled tirade moving-up five spots in
20-minutes. As the hours mounted, the track became dirty with debris. A
piece of rubbish pierced the radiator of the car in the fourth-hour
ending Sellers dramatic move to the front of the field. A lengthy
repair dropped the No. 17 back to 32nd. The car would also suffer
gearbox damage when a competitor struck the Burtin Porsche from behind.
It was taken to the garage and worked-on overnight. Sellers would
triple-stint the Porsche in the early Sunday morning hours before
turning-over driving duties to his teammates. In total, they covered
424 laps finishing 33rd.
Quotes
Bryan Sellers:
About the CTSCC Race:"Daytona
is a difficult race. It is a giant chess game that is based so much on
positioning. The draft is so effective there it makes it important to
think ahead to where you need to be. Just like the NASCAR guys have to
consider all of that in the Daytona 500, it's the same for us in sports
cars. I felt like I was in a great position prior to the last yellow
coming out. That yellow allowed the field to bunch back up and killed
the gap I had to third-place. After the race went green I knew I was in
trouble because the Mustang was too fast and now I was under attack
from one of my Fall-Line Motorsports teammates who had regained the
draft. It is always frustrating to lose a position on the podium,
however it is good points to take home."
About opening the 2012 CTSCC
Season in strong fashion: "Mark put in a great stint and the Fall-Line
guys gave us a great car. That is what I expect we'll be able to do all
year. It is difficult to win a championship under the best conditions,
but even more difficult when you don't take points home from a race.
You have to leave every race with something if you want to be in the
championship at the end and that is our goal. It was important to get
the first race under our belt and have good results. We were able to do
that so, hopefully, we can continue to improve and be a little better
in the future so we can have a shot at beating the Mustang."
About the Rolex 24: "I was
happy with my first stint. We started from almost last and were able to
make our way back up into the Top-10. It is difficult to tell how many
cars you are passing at this race because it seems like it is constant
traffic but I felt like we were gaining. We ended that stint with a
puncture in the radiator. We are not sure how it happened or what
actually did it but it was a rare occurrence that started our downfall.
Getting back in and doing a triple [stint] the next morning was
difficult after you are down so many laps. However, we are
professionals and it's our job to rise to the occasion. Not to mention
we have the best job in the world. I wanted so badly to repeat this
year and have a good result but we were not able to do so. Still, how
unhappy can you be driving a Porsche 911 around Daytona in the 50th
anniversary of one of the greatest races in the world?"
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