DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (January 28, 2016) – Townsend Bell qualified the No. 11 O’Gara Lamborghini Huracán GT3 ninth in a rain-plagued IMSA GT Daytona (GTD) qualifying session Thursday for this weekend’s Rolex 24 At Daytona at Daytona International Speedway (DIS).

Bell is co-driving the No. 11 with full-season teammate Bill Sweedler. Lamborghini racing champions Edoardo Piscopo and Richard Antinucci are joining the team for the Rolex 24.

Thursday’s wet qualifying reminded Bell of last year’s season-ending Petit Le Man, a rain-soaked race at Road Atlanta in which he and Sweedler clinched the 2015 IMSA GTD driver and team championships.

That actually seemed quite normal just based on how we finished the 2015 season at Petit Le Mans,” Bell said. “Crazy conditions but even in the rain you have got to go. I kind of missed the window there at the beginning when the track was best right at the start. With lots of traffic I opted to just hold up and try to get a big gap to avoid any visibility issues, but when we got the tire temperatures up the water really started coming down. I certainly was not going to push anything, just tried to keep it on the island, and we’ll start ninth. That’s better than I thought we’d be based on how I was driving, so that’s fine. It’s a nice, solid, safe start for the 11.”

The pair of practice sessions that preceded qualifying on Thursday were also run in rainy conditions.

“We survived in qualifying and that was really our goal,” Piscopo said. “It is really easy to make a mistake in those rainy conditions and Townsend did a good job. Starting ninth is good enough for us in the race.”

O’Gara Motorsport has stepped up to IMSA GTD competition this year after a championship-winning 2015 season in the IMSA Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series.

“I’m very impressed with the way this new team has conducted itself in the first GTD qualifying session, especially Townsend,” said Antinucci, who won the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Pro Driver Championship with O’Gara in 2015. “Qualifying like this is really up to the driver to not make a big error, so for us to be in the first half of the grid says a lot about the team and Townsend, he’s obviously quick. We have a limited amount of spare parts for the new cars, for everybody in a Lamborghini, not just us and we still have four wheels, four corners and a new paint job still for the race.”

Friday morning’s one-hour final practice at 10:25 a.m. is the last session before Saturday’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, which is scheduled to start at 2:40 p.m. EST.

The 54th running of America’s premier 24-hour race kicks off the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season and can be seen live in combined and continuous programming on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), FOX Sports 2 (FS2) and IMSA.com. Coverage begins this Saturday, January 30, at 2 p.m. EST on FOX Sports 1 to open 16 hours of live Rolex 24 programming across the FS1 and FS2 cable networks. The remainder of the race can be followed through live streaming and commentary on IMSA.com.

About O’Gara Motorsport

The O’Gara Motorsport team was founded in 2014 by owner Tom O’Gara. The team is a unique group of professionals with the goal of achieving victories in the WeatherTech Sportscar Challenge Series and the North American Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Series as well as showcasing the brands of their sponsors both on and off the track. With a vertically integrated platform that starts at the dealership and accelerates to the top levels of professional sports car racing, everyone at O’Gara is dedicated to providing a comprehensive program for anyone, from the casually curious to the dedicated racer.

To follow all of the 2016 Series action and the O’Gara Motorsport team, make sure to follow the official Instagram accounts @lamborghinibeverlyhills @ogaramotorsport for live updates along with Facebook.com/lamborghinibeverlyhills and Facebook.com/ogaramotorsport. To become a driver, learn more about the series, or attend a race, visit ogaramotorsport.com for more information.