Justin Bell

Justin Derek Bell (born 23 February 1968) is a British race car driver, who after a successful career behind the wheel, transitioned into the media world in front of the camera and established himself as one of the top US based automotive content hosts. He is the son of Derek Bell.[1]

Justin Bell
Born
Justin Derek Bell

(1968-02-23) 23 February 1968
OccupationAuto racing TV and WEB Host
Years active1989—present

Career

Like many successful car racers, Justin Bell nurtured and developed his passion for speed and competitive racing at an early age. With natural talent and the encouragement of his father Derek Bell, a five-time Le Mans 24 hours winner, he started out fast and got faster, and soon began carving his own place in history. Since beginning his career in 1988, Justin has achieved many significant racing accomplishments, including the 1997 FIA GT2 Championship, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class in 1998 and second-place finishes in Le Mans and Daytona, and a pair of SCCA Trans-Am wins.

Along the way he raced for major car manufacturers including Saab, Peugeot, Porsche, BMW, Dodge and General Motors. For Dodge Viper, he won the 1997 FIA GT2 world championship and the GT2 class at Le Mans in 1998. In 2000 Justin signed with General Motors as a driver for the factory Corvette Racing team, finishing second in the Daytona 24 Hours, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Petit Le Mans.

Early in his career, as Justin made consistent progress through a variety of racing categories, all the while appearing in various television programs. In 1993, he was co-host of the motor sports television program 555 Performance World, which ran on Asia's largest satellite network Star TV and was seen by over 80 million viewers. This led to him hosting a six-part series, The International Young Driver of the Year on BBC television.

Since 2005 Justin has worked frequently with Speed Channel (now Fox Sports 1) as a host of various live and format based TV shows, such as the Barrett Jackson Auctions, American Le Mans Series, Grand American Racing, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Test Drive and Shut up and Drive.

Justin co-founded Bell & Ammo with Nicolai Iuul in 2013 to create high production value, entertaining, original automotive lifestyle content. Their primary show is The Worlds Fastest Car Show sponsored by eBay Mobile and airs on the wildly successful Motor Trend YouTube Channel. Nicolai produces and directs while Justin hosts.

Other career milestones. Justin and his father raced together in the 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. He tried to qualify for the 1996 Indianapolis 500 in a 4 year old Lola chassis. Later in 1997, he won the FIA GT championship in the GT2 class[2] in a Dodge Viper GTS-R, racing for Team Oreca. From 2000-2004 he had his own racing school which trained the pupils with Chevrolet Corvette cars.[3] In 2001-2003 he raced in the Trans Am Series, winning two major races at Houston and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and took the Rookie of the Year title.[4] In 2009 Bell debuted as the driving instructor for the celebrities on The Jay Leno Show[2] where he also interviews the celebrity for the website.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1991 Euro Racing Shunji Kasuya Spice SE88P C2 - DNQ DNQ
1992 ADA Engineering Tiff Needell
Derek Bell
Porsche 962C GTi C3 284 12th 5th
1994 Rent-A-Car Racing Team
Luigi Racing
René Arnoux
Bertrand Balas
Dodge Viper RT/10 LM GT1 273 12th 3rd
1995 Harrods Mach One Racing
David Price Racing
Andy Wallace
Derek Bell
McLaren F1 GTR GT1 296 3rd 2nd
1996 Viper Team Oreca Dominique Dupuy
Perry McCarthy
Chrysler Viper GTS-R GT1 96 DNF DNF
1997 Viper Team Oreca Pierre Yver
John Morton
Chrysler Viper GTS-R GT2 278 14th 5th
1998 Viper Team Oreca David Donohue
Luca Drudi
Chrysler Viper GTS-R GT2 317 11th 1st
1999 Viper Team Oreca Tommy Archer
Marc Duez
Chrysler Viper GTS-R GT2 318 12th 2nd
2000 Corvette Racing Ron Fellows
Chris Kneifel
Chevrolet Corvette C5R LM GTS 326 11th 4th

IRL IndyCar Series

Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 Rank Points
1996 Tempero–Giuffre Racing Lola T92 Buick WDW
PHX INDY
Wth
- 0

References

  1. "First win for Bell". The Independent. London. 10 September 2001. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
  2. Motavalli, Jim (19 September 2009). "Jay Leno's Green Car Challenge Puts Guests on Racetrack". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
  3. "Motorsport.com: News". Motorsport.com. 5 December 2000. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
  4. "Motorsport.com: News". Motorsport.com. 6 October 2001. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
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