Bell finally secures his 2nd GT America GT4 title after nail biting finale at IMS
Sunday, October 08, 2023
Having entered this final round of the 2023 season with a sizeable points lead over his main class advisory in Robb Holland as well as AMR stablemate in Ross Chouest, the quirks of the Series Regulations meant that everyone had to their worst performing weekend from the season as that had a major impact on this weekend’s race possibilities.
Having started from the front row in Friday’s first race, that race and the Championship ambition looked well within the #2 cars sights having then lead most of the forty-minute race, but Holland had other ideas. Taking the lead late on and then taking the race win saw that points gap between Bell and Holland shrink to just nine points going into Sundays finale.
With Holland starting pole, all that Bell had to do was to follow the #99 Porsche around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield circuit to claim what would be his second GT America GT4 crown but managing and controlling nerves and tension that had been allowed to build up over the intervening down day would be the key with Bell being quoted as saying “I have Michael Cooper in my ear, I know what I must do to win this again!”
Despite a first corner coming together for up to five GT3 cars ahead, both the #99 and #2 were fortunate to slot through the melee as the #25 Heart of Racing of Gray Newell and #009 TRG AMR of Tim Savage made contact with one another and spun.
The next thirty-eight minutes became quite processional as Bell followed Holland around with things only getting interesting as and when Chouest approached the rear of the #2 car with his #50 AMR. The biggest question there was would the reigning GT4 Champion challenge stablemate Bell for position?
Entering the final ninety seconds saw the GT3 leaders come through for the final time but this scattered the top three GT4s off their preferred lines, giving Chouest every opportunity to challenge if he wanted but the championship battle was allowed to continue and end how it had started with Holland claiming another class win over Bell but to fall just short of the ultimate prize as both Bell claimed the 2023 GT America GT4 Drivers Championship and the Flying Lizard team secured the GT4 Teams Championship for the first time to end another eventful year of racing within the Series.
Photo credits – Teams / Series
