After winning the North American Road Racing Championship last season, Bell Motorsports has quickly established itself as a frontrunner for the title in 2004 by leading every day of Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series pre-season testing at Daytona International Speedway. The No. 54 Chevrolet Doran JE-4 turned its fastest lap of the three-day weekend on Sunday with a 1:48.311 at 118.326 mph.

2003 Daytona Prototype champion Terry Borcheller partnered with ForestBarber, Andy Pilgrim and Milka Duno in the No. 54 Chevy during testing.

The No. 58 Red Bull Porsche FABCAR of Brumos Racing posted thesecond-fastest time of the test on Sunday with its 1:48.635 lap at 117.973mph. David Donohue and Darren Law and Porsche factory drivers Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr piloted the Red Bull Porsche.

In its first-ever on-track appearance, the No. 01 Comp USA Lexus Riley ofChip Ganassi Racing recorded the third-quickest lap time. Driven by ScottPruett and Max Papis, the No. 01 Lexus turned a 117.711 mph lap in 1:48.877mph.

Sporting an all-star lineup that features road racing veteran Andy Wallace,as well as NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and TonyStewart, the No. 2 Chevrolet Crawford of Howard-Boss Racing recorded thefourth-fastest time during testing with a 1:49.038 lap at 117.537 mph.

Rounding out the top-five cars during testing was the Doran-Lista Racing No.27 Lexus Doran JE-4 of Didier Theys, who clocked a 1:49.747 lap at 116.778mph. Defending Rolex 24 At Daytona winner The Racer's Group led the GT classduring testing. The team's No. 66 Porsche GT3 RS of Kevin Buckler, JorgBergmeister, Timo Bernhard and Patrick Long had a 1:54.785 lap at 111.652mph.

Prototype Technology Group's No. 21 BMW M3 of Bill Auberlen, Boris Said,Justin Marks and Joey Hand was number two in the GT class, posting a1:55.121 at 111.326 mph.

AASCO Motorsports, which decided to forego Monday's test sessions, led thenew Super Grand Sport class this weekend with the No. 16 Porsche GT3 Cup ofCraig Stanton and David Murry. The No. 16 Porsche recorded a 1:57.074 lap at109.469 mph on Sunday.

TPC Racing's No. 37 Porsche GT3 Cup was second fastest in the SGS class. ThePorsche, which was driven by John Littlechild, Bill Adam, Randy Pobst, AndyLally and Michael Levitas during testing, clocked a 1:58.266 lap at 108.366mph.

Istook/Aines Motorsports Leads Grand-Am Cup Testing

Istook/Aines Motorsports led Grand-Am Cup Series testing, which was alsoheld at Daytona International Speedway during the three-day weekend. Theteam's No. 04 Audi S4 of Don Istook, Anders Hainer and Blake Rosser posted a2:05.934 lap at 101.768 mph.

TheRaceSite.com No. 43 Porsche 996 had the second-fastest lap with a2:07.188 lap at 100.764 mph. Father Joe Nonnamaker was joined by his sonsWill and Wayne in the Porsche this weekend.

In the first professional racing appearance of the new Mazda RX-8,SpeedSource took the No. 70 Mazda to the top of the charts in the SportTouring division. Drivers Sylvain Tremblay and David Haskell turned a2:14.321 lap at 95.413 mph to lead the class.

Bill Fenton Motorsports debut its new No. 27 Acura RSX-S during testing andposted the second-fastest Sport Touring time. Bill Fenton, Eric Curran andBob Beede piloted the car, which recorded a 2:14.437 lap at 95.331 mph.

Drivers Pleased With Testing

Following three days of testing at Daytona International Speedway, most ofthe drivers seemed pleased with the performance of their cars and progressmade over the weekend.

"So far, everything is very good. We are very pleased with what weaccomplished," said two-time Rolex 24 winner Didier Theys, who was the onlydriver testing the Doran-Lista Racing No. 27 Lexus Doran JE-4 this weekend."We worked on the setup for the race. We didn't put a lot of new tires on totry and do a fast time. We were steady all the time. I think we have a goodrace setup. We prepared for cold or hot or rainy weather."

"Putting it into perspective, I think its gone great, realizing that Rileyis a brand new chassis and brand new car to the series this year and hadzero miles of development on it," said Scott Pruett, driver of the No. 01Comp USA Lexus Riley of Chip Ganassi Racing. "Here we are, most sessions,running top two, top three, top four, top five. If you look at the amount oftrue miles we've put on the car, I think we've come along quite quickly. Weknow there are areas here where we need to make the car better. If we keepthat in perspective, I think we'll be great."

"It was very good. It's nice for me to get back, because I haven't driventhe car since the Watkins Glen race in June, because I only do a coupleraces a year - the long distance ones," said Scott Goodyear, part of theBrumos Racing No. 59 Porsche FABCAR driving lineup. "Its nice to come outand beat some of the cobwebs off. I think we've got a good format togetherand a good group of drivers, and obviously with the Brumos team, we've got agood team."

Cort Wagner had plenty of positive things to say about his first experiencebehind the wheel of the No. 6 Lexus Doran JE-4 of Michael Shank Racing."Great! Very reliable. The Doran car is doing great," said Wagner. "All thedrivers have done a great job, and Mike Shank Racing - these guys are new toendurance racing, but old hats at Atlantic, and they are doing a reallygreat job with the car. It's a lot of fun to drive. We are making it a lotmore fun to drive. We are behind the eight ball compared to teams like KevinDoran's No. 27 car and (Terry) Borcheller. It's a brand new car. We arelearning a lot about it and having a great time. It's a lot of fun."

Rolex 24 Teammates Also Former Business Colleagues

Last week, SpeedSource Race Engineering announced that Silverstone Racingdrivers Larry Huang and Chris Hall would team with Selby Wellman and SylvainTremblay in SpeedSource's No. 70 Ford Multimatic for the Rolex 24 AtDaytona. The partnering of the former Grand-Am Cup Series rivals came afterHuang and Hall realized that their Silverstone Racing Daytona Prototypewould not be ready in time for the Rolex 24.

However, the pairing of the two teams for the Rolex 24 not only bringstogether friendly rivals, but also former business colleagues. Wellman andHuang first met more than 15 years ago in the business world.

"We met back in '87. Larry was with a satellite company and I was with anetworking company and our two companies were talking of merging or buyingeach other out. Larry had the lead on his side and I had the lead on myside. The acquisition/merger did not occur, but we got to know each otherpretty well back then," explained Wellman. "Over the course of the remainderof our careers, we'd run into each other at a trade show every now and thenand have maybe a couple of business calls. Things like that. It wasn'textensive, but we knew each other quite well."

It wasn't until last season that the two ran back into each other at DaytonaInternational Speedway. "I think it was last year at test days I heardsomebody calling my name and it was Selby. It was great," said Huang.

Wellman and Huang raced against each other for the first half of the 2003season in the Grand-Am Cup Series Grand Sport I class, before Wellman movedinto the Rolex Series to contend a Daytona Prototype for the second half ofthe season. Huang also planned on moving into the Rolex Series for the 2004season, but ran into trouble with having his car prepared in time for theRolex 24.

"We were in Miami when the deal fell apart with Chase for Larry and Chris.We were looking for two drivers, and I think our decision to ask them tojoin us had more to do with the fact that we had a good relationship and hadcompeted against each other and had some really nice events," said Wellman."We just went up to them and proposed that they join us. I think I caughtthem by surprise, but at the same time I think it took them less than about12 hours to respond, saying 'we're in'."

"First of all, I thought it was very, very gracious of them to offer that soquickly. We were in a little bit of a state of shock, so we weren't thinkingthat clearly. But, I think within a short period of time we were like, 'boywe like the SpeedSource folks, we raced against each other last year, welike the whole organization... yeah this would be a whole lot of fun, andwe'll be able to be part of a pretty good team'."

While Wellman and Huang's teams will merge for the Rolex 24, the two will goback to being friendly rivals for round two of the series when Huang andHall are expected to have Silverstone Racing's Crawford Daytona Prototype.

Fiery End to Testing

After three days of testing without any major on-track incidents, the finaltest session was cut short on Monday afternoon when the Specter Werks SportNo. 24 Cauley Corvette caught on fire. The Corvette was witnessed withflames as it came down the backstretch and flamed up when driver Tom Bambardpulled off in the horseshoe.

Bambard was able to get out of the car on his own, and after a visit to theinfield care center, he was transported to Halifax Medical Center as aprecaution for smoke inhalation.

Rolex 24 Tickets On Sale

The 42nd Anniversary of the Rolex 24 At Daytona event weekend will beJanuary 29 - February 1. Tickets are currently on sale and can be purchasedonline at daytonainternationalspeedway.com or by calling 386-253-RACE.The Rolex 24 will be broadcast LIVE on SPEED Channel.

Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series - Best Practice Times – Saturday-Monday

 Best practice times (Saturdaythrough Monday) for the Rolex 24 At Daytona pre-event testing with position,(car number), drivers and hometowns, class and car, qualifying time andspeed.1. (54) Forest Barber; Terry Borcheller; Andy Pilgrim; Milka Duno, DP, BellMotorsports Chevrolet Doran, 01:48.311, 118.326.2. (58) David Donohue; Darren Law; Sascha Maassen; Lucas Luhr, DP, RedBull - Brumos Porsche Porsche Fabcar, 01:48.635, 117.973.3. (01) Scott Pruett; Max Papis, DP, CGR Grand Am Lexus Riley, 01:48.877,117.711.4. (2) Andy Wallace; Dale Earnhardt Jr; Tony Stewart, DP, Howard - BossMotorsports Chevrolet Crawford, 01:49.038, 117.537.5. (27) Didier Theys; Fredy Lienhard, DP, Doran Lista Racing Lexus Doran,01:49.747, 116.778.6. (59) Hurley Haywood; JC France; Scott Sharp; Scott Goodyear, DP, BrumosRacing Porsche Fabcar, 01:50.230, 116.266.7. (6) Brent Martini; Cort Wagner; Mike Newton; Thomas Erdos; Kelly Collins,DP, Michael Shank Racing Lexus Doran, 01:50.248, 116.247.8. (4) Butch Leitzinger; Elliott Forbes-Robinson; David Brule; JimmieJohnson, DP, Howard - Boss Motorsports Chevrolet Crawford, 01:50.664,115.81.9. (9) Paul Mears Jr; Mike Borkowski; Arie Luyendyk Jr; Nick Ham, DP, MearsMotor Coach Ford Multimatic, 01:50.673, 115.801.10. (09) Doug Goad, DP, Spirit of Daytona Racing Chevrolet Crawford,01:50.759, 115.711.11. (70) Selby Wellman; Sylvain Tremblay; Larry Huang; Chris Hall, DP,SpeedSource Ford Multimatic, 01:50.798, 115.67.12. (7) Shane Lewis; Jack Baldwin; George Robinson; Steve Southard, DP,Southard Motorsports BMW Fabcar, 01:52.598, 113.821.13. (80) Danny Marshall; Steve Marshall; Fabio Spatafora; Hugo Guenette, DP,G&W Motorsports BMW Picchio, 01:52.674, 113.744.14. (79) Gunnar Jeannette, DP, Gunnar Racing Porsche Fabcar, 01:52.812,113.605.15. (5) Joe Pruskowski; Justin Pruskowski; Ross Bentley; Don Kitch Jr, DP,Essex Racing Ford Multimatic, 01:53.107, 113.309.16. (22) Tommy Riggins; Oswaldo Negri Jr., DP, Heritage Motorsports LexusFabcar, 01:54.373, 112.054.17. (3) Darius Grala; John Lloyd; Chad Block; Nikolai Kozarowitzky, DP,Cegwa Sport Lexus Fabcar, 01:54.776, 111.661.18. (66) Kevin Buckler; Timo Bernhard; Jorg Bergmeister; Patrick Long, GT,The Racers Group Porsche GT3 RS, 01:54.785, 111.652.19. (21) Bill Auberlen; Boris Said; Justin Marks; Joey Hand, GT, PrototypeTechnology Group BMW M3, 01:55.121, 111.326.20. (75) Seth Neiman; Lonnie Pechnik; Johannes Van Overbeek; PeterCunningham, GT, Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche GT3 RS, 01:55.536,110.926.21. (99) Larry Schumacher; BJ Zacharias, GT, Schumacher Racing Porsche GT3RS, 01:55.564, 110.9.22. (44) Joe Policastro; Jay Pontoriero; Robin Liddell; Johnny Mowlem; MikeFitzgerald, GT, Orbit Racing Porsche GT3 RS, 01:55.599, 110.866.23. (68) RJ Valentine; Bohdan Kroczek; Abraham Zimroth; Liz Halliday, GT,The Racers Group Porsche GT3 RS, 01:56.090, 110.397.24. (74) Seth Neiman; Lonnie Pechnik; Johannes Van Overbeek; PeterCunningham, GT, Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche GT3 Cup, 01:56.282,110.215.25. (73) Klaus Engelhorn; Dieter Quester; Philipp Peter; Andrea Montermini,GT, BE Racing Ferrari 360GT, 01:56.401, 110.102.26. (11) Edi Gay; Diego Alessi; Irady Alexander, GT, JMB Racing USA Ferrari360GT, 01:56.401, 110.102.27. (15) Don Kitch; David Gaylord; Tom Hessert, DP, Essex Racing FordMultimatic, 01:56.563, 109.949.28. (67) Lars Nielsen; Robert Nearn; Harry Burnstine; Jim Matthews, GT, TheRacers Group Porsche GT3 RS, 01:56.761, 109.763.29. (16) Craig Stanton; David Murry, SGS, AASCO Motorsports Porsche GT3 Cup,01:57.074, 109.469.30. (57) John Stevenson; Chip Vance; Dave White; John Buttermire, GT,Stevenson Motorsports/ Auto Assets Porsche GT3 RS, 01:57.580, 108.998.31. (83) Frank Mountain; Rob Wilson, GT, Cirtek Motorsport Porsche GT3 RS,01:57.774, 108.819.32. (37) John Littlechild; Bill Adam; Randy Pobst; Andy Lally; MichaelLevitas, SGS, TPC Racing Porsche GT3 Cup, 01:58.266, 108.366.33. (91) Robert Julien; Jean-Francois Dumoulin, SGS, Doncaster RacingPorsche GT3 Cup, 01:58.309, 108.327.34. (38) Mark Bunting; Andy Lally; Randy Pobst; Michael Levitas; Bill Adam,SGS, TPC Racing Porsche GT3 Cup, 01:58.484, 108.167.35. (98) Marc Feinstein; Bill Riddell Jr; Ron Zitza, GT, GT TechnologiesPorsche GT3 Cup, 01:58.517, 108.136.36. (13) Michael Cawley; Andrew Davis; Coy Gibbs, SGS, Foxhill RacingPorsche GT3 Cup, 01:58.909, 107.78.37. (119) Greg Pootmans; Mark Wilkins, SGS, Doncaster Racing Porsche GT3Cup, 01:58.931, 107.76.38. (30) Anthony Lazzaro, GT, Risi Competizione Maserati, 01:59.092,107.614.39. (17) Mark Webber; Joe Kunz, SGS, AASCO Motorsports Porsche GT3 Cup,01:59.154, 107.558.40. (24) John Heinricy; Jeff Nowicki; Tom Bambard; Pete Halsmer, GT, SpecterWerks/Sports Corvette, 01:59.200, 107.517.41. (88) Pedro Couceiro; Miguel Amaral; Carlos Barbot, GT, ASM Team PorscheGT3 RS, 01:59.237, 107.483.42. (71) Dave Lacey; Greg Wilkins, SGS, Doncaster Racing Porsche GT3 Cup,01:59.720, 107.05.43. (10) Wayne Taylor; Max Angelelli; Emmanuel Collard, DP, Sun Trust RacingPontiac Riley, 01:59.925, 106.867.44. (82) Jim Brillhart; Terry Heath; Jack Henricks; Steve Lynn, SGS, ddsRacing Porsche GT3 Cup, 02:00.020, 106.782.45. (33) Stephen Earle; Emil Assentato; Nick Longhi, GT, Scuderia Ferrari ofWashington Maserati, 02:00.224, 106.601.46. (14) Cory Friedman; Mike Smith; Bransen Patch, GT, AutometricsMotorsports Porsche GT3 Cup, 02:00.738, 106.147.47. (46) Peter Argetsinger; John Pew; Darrio Cioiti; Mark Patterson; JimVictor, SGS, Michael Baughman Racing Corvette, 02:01.234, 105.713.48. (42) Will Nonnamaker; Joe Nonnamaker; Wayne Nonnamaker, SGS,TheRaceSite.com Racing Porsche GT3 Cup, 02:01.536, 105.45.49. (65) Jason Choulochas; Paul Schroeder; Jeremy Goldberger, SGS, TheRacers Group Porsche GT3 Cup, 02:01.756, 105.26.50. (64) Dave Master, SGS, The Racers Group Porsche GT3 Cup, 02:01.772,105.246.51. (00) Steven Bernheim; Dwain Dement; Dennis Puddester; Doug Baron, SGS,Team Vision Porsche GT3 Cup, 02:01.950, 105.092.52. (41) Joe Nonnamaker; Will Nonnamaker; Wayne Nonnamaker, SGS, PlanetEarth Motorsports Porsche GT3 Cup, 02:03.058, 104.146.53. (47) Michael Baughman; Bob Ward; Brad Yaeger, SGS, Michael BaughmanRacing Porsche GT3 Cup, 02:04.295, 103.11.54. (87) Gary Stewart, SGS, G&W Motorsports Porsche GT3 Cup, 02:04.468,102.966.55. (96) Gary Becker; Patrick Flanagan; Derek Clark, SGS, AASCO MotorsportsPorsche GT3 Cup, 02:06.080, 101.65.56. (86) Mae Van Wijk; Armando Trentini; Andres Van Der Dys, SGS, G&WMotorsports Porsche GT3 Cup, 02:06.896, 100.996.