This past weekend marked the close of the GT America Powered by AWS 2022 season at the notable Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the last two rounds of the sixteen-round schedule. GMG Racing lead point scorer Jason Bell began the weekend at the top of the points table with the championship on the line, and everything had to go his way to bring home another title.
Bell, the reigning 2021 champion, started his weekend with a pair of practice sessions on Thursday to prepare himself for qualifying on Friday morning. The weekend was shaping up to be good, showing impressive speed in practice. Bell qualified sixth and started from the outside of row three for race number one Friday afternoon.
With the weekend’s first race off to a treacherous start, an early full course yellow cooled off any adrenaline the participating drivers may have had. A quick return to the green flag action on lap two and Bell began to make his way through the field passing each opponent one by one and narrowly avoiding incidents ahead of him on a few occasions. Battling those on his heels, Bell earns his first trophy of the weekend as he hopped up to the third step on the podium garnering valuable championship points.
At this point, Bell was still in the championship lead, but a mere 19 points separated him and the second-place point scorer as he had to wait until Sunday to finish the job. After a break on Saturday for the International GT Challenge 8-Hour race, the sun rose Sunday morning and it was time to get back to racing.
Bell, starting on the outside of row two this time around, began the last race of the 2022 season with his foot on the gas. Keeping steady throughout the race, it wasn’t until toward the end that the real battle for the championship began. Bell, passing as many cars as he could, had the championship in his hands with just minutes to go. Then, Bell’s closest rival took over the lead as the few cars in front of him ended their race in misfortune. Bell crossed the finish line in third, his second podium result of the weekend, but came up just shy in championship points to take home another.
“We may not have won the championship,” explained Bell, “But we aren’t walking away from this weekend or this year empty-handed. We will work hard to come back better and stronger as I just want it that much more next year.’
Bell continued, “I want to thank my team GMG Racing and all my partners for supporting me this season, it was a year to remember.”
Jason Bell would like to thank all his partners for their continued support this year. A huge thanks to Fidelis Capital, GMG Racing, Aston Martin Racing, MovoCash, Meat Market, and Paddock1 Garages.
For more information on Jason Bell please visit him online at www.JasonBellRacing.com or follow him on his social media channels: Twitter @JasonBellGTS2 and Instagram via @JasonBellGTS.
Photo Credit: GMG Racing