Monday, March 20, 2006

Podium Finish for Bell Micro Racing Hospitality AJR Finishes Sixth at Sebring

Robin Osborne

Bell Micro Racing along with our Vendor Partners QLogic, Seagate and AMD hosted a winning ‘Relationship Sales Event’ this past weekend at the famous Sebring International Raceway. The 54th Annual Mobile 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring began at 10:45AM after the pre-race activities which included a Sportscar Vintage Race and the Aston Martin/Special Cars parade laps.

Our East Coast Sales Team did a terrific job. We had a great turnout with 121 guests in attendance, representing such companies as Acme Packet, Arlington Computer Products, AMII, Boca Research, Bosch, Brevard Community College, CBM, CDW, City of Port St. Lucie, Compuserve, Connecting Point, Exagrid, Far Reach Technologies, First Data Corporation, Germane, Honeywell, HP, Jesdav, Lecroy, Patriot, Nextone, Martin Memorial Hospital, Merrit, Relational Technology Services, Smartdisk, Tyco, Tiger Direct, Tom Smith Industries, VEI, Walkabout and more. The Bell Micro Racing team would like to thank the sales team for their effort and support, with a special “thank you” to Dan Madish!

Team

AJR, the “local team,” was looking for another win. Unfortunately, that would not be the case at the end of the day. The team ran strong throughout the early hours of the race, until contact with another car caused problems. Mike Rockenfeller was able to race the #23/Alex Job Racing/Bell Microproducts/Porsche into second place on the very first lap. The competitiveness of the AJR Porsche shined early on, with Rockenfeller jockeying for position for the entire first hour.

Klaus Graf would take over driving at lap 36 and would lead the GT2 class until contact with a P2 car in turn 14 stopped his run at the front. This contact would later come back to haunt the team’s attempt for their seventh Sebring victory. Seventeen year old Graham Rahal took over from Graf three hours into the race. The road racing prodigy was able to quickly get up to speed and improve the team’s position. His advantage ended at lap 99 when a flat left front tire forced him to pit.

AJR car

Each of the three AJR drivers endured flat tires. The final blow to the team’s chances to remain at the front of the GT2 pack was a failing right front control-arm precipitated by the early Graf contact with the P2 car. The crew replaced the right front corner and the car returned to the track 10 laps down. Rockenfeller and Graf were able to make up the ground and finish nine laps down in sixth place.

Mike Rockenfeller said, “It was tough what happened to Klaus at the beginning, but that is endurance racing. Even then, we were able to come back and return to the fight at the front. I was able to run fast laps and the car was very stable. It is a shame; we worked very hard on the car all through practice and got it right for the race. I really want to win here, this race is so difficult that it is one every driver wants to win. I expected a different result. We will win some races this year, but for sure the battle at the front will be very tough all season.”

Commenting on the race Alex Job said, “Unfortunately it was another tough Sebring for us. Klaus had the contact early, which was the precursor to our upright problems later on in the race. We also had some bad luck with debris on the circuit and flat tires. With the significantly elevated performance of the Panoz and Ferrari, every point this year will have significant value towards the championship.”

Don Bell

The GT3 Cup Challenge race took place on Friday afternoon with a very full pit box of Bell Micro guests on hand to cheer on Don Bell. Don would qualify 26th in a field of 44 cars and would finish the race in 28th place.

Bell Micro Racing will be heading south to Long Beach for the next “Relationship Sales Event.” The Long Beach Grand Prix will take place on Sunday, April 9th. It will be the opening round for the Champ Car World Series. Open wheel racing and a woman driver behind the wheel of the #21 car -- can’t wait!