Quebec, Canada - August 16, 2009 - Matt Bell earned his second victory of the 2009 Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge Grand Sport (GS) season Sunday in the 40th edition of the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, holding off Billy Johnson and giving co-driver Don Salama his first-ever GS win.

Bell led the final 45 laps of the 66-lap, 90-minute race around the 1.521-mile, 10-turn temporary street circuit in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M3, Turner Motorsport's third victory of 2009. He took over from Don Salama during one of the race's three full course cautions, made his way to the front as pit stops cycled through and sprinted away following the final caution to win by 2.7 seconds. The winning pair averaged 66.238 mph.

At times during his stint, Bell owned nearly an eight-second lead, but that was cut into late in the race by Tom Long. The gap diminished on Lap 52, when the yellow flag came out for debris on the track as a result from a crash involving John Potter's No. 41 Magnus Racing Porsche 997. It marked the first time a caution period occurred in a GS race since TheGlen.com 200 at Watkins Glen International.

The green flag flew on Lap 55, and Bell was momentarily challenged before positions began changing behind him. With that racing going on, he pulled away, moving to fifth in the standings and keeping his championship hopes alive with only two races remaining this season.

"It's fantastic to get a win on this track!" said Bell, who opened the season with a win at Daytona International Speedway, his first KONI Challenge victory. "To be behind the wheel and take the checkered flag was a great feeling. When that last yellow flag came out and took away the lead I'd built up, it was like it took all the steam out of the effort I'd put in at that point. But the BMW M3 is so balanced and I had been as conservative as I could be with the brakes so on the restart I was able to build up my lead again, thankfully. Don did a great job in his stint and the Turner guys gave me an unbelievable pit stop and then I just had to do my job from there."

Salama and Bell had never triumphed before in KONI Challenge competition at Trois-Rivières, but Turner Motorsport has -three times now, all in odd-numbered years. Chris Gleason, who finished sixth in the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 with Justin Marks, won in 2007 with Bill Auberlen. Auberlen also won in 2005.

Salama was a substitute for Auberlen this weekend. He becomes the first winner this season to win in multiple KONI Challenge classes - he also joined Will Turner as a winner in the Street Tuner (ST) class race in May at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

"There are so few days in racing where everything works perfectly for you, but this was one of those days," Salama said. "My job was just to stay out as close to the front as possible. I am not in the championship points battle, so we had the flexibility to do the driver change when we wanted to. So when that (second) yellow flag came out, it was exactly the right time for us. Matt drove a perfect race for us today, managing the car so that when that last restart came, he had plenty of car left underneath him and no problem moving clear of the field once again."

Turner Motorsport returns for more racing action in Utah at Salt Lake City's Miller Motorsports Park for Round 10 of the Grand Am KONI Challenge Series on September 20. This will be the 2nd to last race of the 2009 series, and the last televised race of the year, so you will want to be sure to watch on SpeedTV. Airing of the tape-delayed Miller race is tentatively scheduled for Saturday October 3rd @ 1:30pm ET.

Click here to see this session's official results

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