The question posed to the Magic Eight Ball leading into the July 26 Brickyard Sports Car Challenge was: Will Bryan Sellers follow his first career GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) win at historic Watkins Glen International with another this week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS)? The Braselton, Ga.-resident got his answer: "It is decidedly so!"
On Friday, July 26, Sellers and co-driver Mark Boden (Winnetka, Ill.) drove the No. 46 Trim-Tex Drywall Products/BCKSTGR Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3 to an emotional victory on the road course of the world's most famous racetrack. It was a victory with
challenges but the second-year driver pairing would not be denied. After starting 13th, Boden ran the car up into the top-10 before Sellers took over driving chores with an hour and 20-minutes to go. The Team Falken Tire factory driver moved into third ten minutes later and second less than five minutes after that. When a caution period slowed the action, the Trim-Tex Fall-Line BMW was in the lead. Sellers would never relinquish the top spot again despite heavy pressure from the No. 61 Ford Mustang of Billy Johnson but the conclusion was far from certain.
30-minutes from the end a yellow flag again slowed the CTSCC field and left Sellers as a sitting duck down the long front straightaway at "The Speedway". However, the 2012 American Le Mans Series Most Popular Driver Award winner is recognized as one of the strongest re-starters in the series and he again executed to precision gaining a good gap entering the road course's first turn. Johnson would shrink that gap as two final cautions brought the two leaders nose-to-tail. Each time, the caution waved it put the BMW under threat but each time Sellers answered. When the last caution flew with two minutes remaining, Sellers and Boden were guaranteed their second CTSCC career victory and their second win in a row in the road car-based series that saw 56 cars on track at Indy.
The Indianapolis victory follows an equally pressure filled chase to the checkered flag for Sellers at Watkins Glen International on June 30. The win at the historic New York track came due to a last lap pass in wet conditions. While the weather played no part in the Indiana race, the magnitude of winning any race at the track which dates back to 1909 is a milestone career accomplishment for Sellers and Boden.
The television broadcast of this race will air on SPEED, Saturday, August 3 at 4 p.m. ET.
Quotes
Bryan Sellers:
On the emotions of winning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway: "There are no words to describe the emotions we all felt at Trim-Tex and Fall-Line to win as a program at Indy. Indy is where it all started and to have your name on the list of people to win here is amazing. No matter what the race: the Indy 500, the Brickyard 400, MotoGP or GRAND-AM, you competed in, winning is something very special. It still has not sunk in. I hope in a couple days I will be fully able to absorb it."
On the late race challenges: "Restarts are not the strength of the BMW. We do not have nearly enough torque to fight off the Mustangs and high displacement cars so I had to try and be creative. I was able to catch all of them off a couple times but the more restarts you do the more they catch on to your tricks. The restarts are where I was most worried about being susceptible to being beaten. We were able to make the most out of all of them."
On winning back-to-back CTSCC races: "We have always been strong but to win everything has to align and these last two races everything has. Both Watkins Glen and Indy have been great team victories for Fall-Line. Strategy has worked and the pit stops have been fast. The wins belong to everybody on the team because it has been a group effort.
These last two racesMark kept us in the race. He had the lion's share of the laps this race and he was able to run competitive times in a car that was very difficult to drive. Mark always has a stellar performance! It's just a shame that those other races haven't been as visible as this one. I am honored to have him as a teammate and a friend.
We've worked so hard as a team and we've been close so many times. Being able to make it all happen at The Glen and here at Indy, it was almost worth the wait... almost."
