The GRAND-AM Championship Weekend at Lime Rock Park is bittersweet for Bryan Sellers. The Braselton, Ga.-resident is eager to take the No. 46 BCKSTGR/Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3 he co-drives with Mark Boden (Winnetka, Ill.) to the Lakeville, Conn.-area racetrack to challenge for the effort's first win of the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) season. However, the September 29 season-finale leaves a bitter taste that it will allow, at best, a single victory on the year for the team that entered 2012 with such high expectations. It is an all-or-nothing effort now for Sellers to go into the off-season on a high note.
The two-hour and 30-minute Grand Sport (GS) class race is a chance at redemption for Sellers and the BCKSTGR/Fall-Line operation. The Falken Tire "works" driver has impressed this season taking a podium finish to open the year at Daytona International Speedway. A stellar run at Mid-Ohio and again at Indianapolis added to expectations but frustration as well as the top-step of the podium alluded the program. Most recently, the former open-wheel racing champion led at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on September 8 until a penalty dropped him in the running. Sellers still managed to fight back to take second-place on the final lap of the road car-based series' penultimate race. That sets-up this weekend's drive to add a check in the win column.
The 1.5-mile, seven-turn road course of Lime Rock Park is GRAND-AM's shortest track but always one of its most intensely fought races. As the "home" track of BMW North America, it is great venue for Sellers to put up a good showing in the divisions ultimate road car turned-racer, the BMW M3. However, under the current rules package, the German sports sedan may not have the best combination for the hilly and tight circuit. Sellers will ignore all of that and put his full focus on giving the Illinois-based team a victory.
Lime Rock Park CTSCC practice and qualifying for the GS class will take place on Friday, September 28. The race will take the green flag at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning. In a rare occasion, the 27-car GS class entry will have the track to itself on race day.
The GRAND-AM Championship Weekend at Lime Rock Park will air live on www.SPEED2.com with a tape-delay broadcast showing Sunday, October 4 at 1 p.m. (ET) on SPEED. Live timing and scoring of the event can be found at www.GRAND-AM.com.
Quotes
Bryan Sellers:
On the bittersweet feeling at Lime Rock: "It is a very bittersweet feeling to end the year this weekend at Lime Rock. The season started so strongly with a podium in Daytona but from there we have certainly had our bumps in the road. Our expectations for the BCKSTGR BMW this season were so high and we fell short of where we wanted to be. I would like to try again, try and right some of the wrongs. Fall-Line Motorsports has worked very hard this year and I am going to do everything I can to show them my appreciation this weekend."
On Lime Rock: "This race is a shot to show how good we are as a program. We have a very strong team and just haven't had the luck to be able to show it. The BKCSTGR/Fall-Line BMW was very good at a lot of tracks and has had some problems that have taken us out of contention. Hopefully Lime Rock will be the track where it all comes together.
I think the track is an okay fit for the BMW. There are some other cars in the field that suit the track better, but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. We have to take what we have and do the most with it. There are no excuses. We have to hit on all cylinders and do our job. If we do, I know this team has a dominating victory in it."
On this being a single class race: "The fact that this will a GS class-only race could have a huge impact on the event. Less cars, less overtaking and that should lead to less caution laps. In turn, longer green flag runs will impact your pit strategy. If you get caught-out and go down a lap or, better yet, up a lap because of that, then being a single-class race has really impacted your day."
On reflecting upon the CTSCC season coming to the finale: "Our highs have been the podiums and some of the charges from the back of the field to the front. Mark and I have had some great races. We have had some lows as well. Barber, where we had such a good car and were crashed out of the race in the opening laps, was especially low. But that's how the season goes: up and down!"
