Daytona Beach, Fla. (22 January 2015) – Stevenson Motorsports put a good lead foot forward on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway in qualifying for the Daytona 200, the opening round of the 2015 IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.
Friday’s 2.5-hour race will see the two Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R machines piloted by two strong driver line ups, as the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports entry will be shared by Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell, with the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports machine to be driven by Matt Bell and team newcomer Lawson Aschenbach.
Davis and Bell were tasked with the qualifying duties in Thursday’s 15-minute session, with the duo running in tandem to make the most of the draft on the high banks at the “World Center of Racing.”
The two bolted to the top of the charts with their opening laps, but as the field settled in, the session closed with Davis sitting on the inside of the second row with the third spot on the grid, with Bell slated to start directly behind him from fifth. Davis was able to card a fast lap time of 1:56.941-seconds, with Bell just a blink behind that with his 1:57.187-second lap of the 3.56-mile oval-based road circuit.
“This is never been a great track for us in the Camaros and we’ve already had our fair share of misfortune this weekend,” said team manager Mike Johnson. “Sometimes this place gives us small glimmers of hope, then takes it away! Right now our main focus is having two strong cars and no issues tomorrow to get a strong start to the season. Last year we had two DNFs here at Daytona and went on to lose the championship by just a few points. So if we could finish like this, with two top-fives, then head to a track where we won last year (Sebring), that would be a great way to start off the year.”
Stevenson Motorsports saw three practice sessions ahead of the 15-minute qualifying session and the team made improvements to the car throughout each one.
“The car was good, we’ve made a lot of progress with the car after we struggled a little bit yesterday,” said Davis. “We made some changes overnight and right off the bat, we were a lot better. So I knew we had a chance today for the pole, but we didn’t quite make it. We were close, but even trying to draft together, it didn’t work out. But the Stevenson Motorsports guys did a great job with the Camaro, and our focus is on just having a good race tomorrow.”
“It was tough yesterday because I only had a few laps in the car, but we had some braking issues and I never got to do more than a lap or two in a row,” said Bell. “Today we did a big change, it was the right way to go and we learned from what the No. 6 car guys had picked up this weekend so we borrowed some of that and the car was pretty much better. We tried to team up a bit out there and draft some, but it was a tough balance trying to stay together while also learning the car with the new set up. But this is a good start, I’m really happy and the Stevenson guys did an amazing job once again.”
The team will kick off the 2015 IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge season with the Daytona 200 on January 23. Fans can stream the race live starting at 1:45 PM ET at IMSA.com.
