When a Brit referred to as Matt Bell turned up within the LMP3 class of the European Le Mans Collection in 2023 there was inevitably some confusion. A presumption was made that it was the identical Matt Bell who was racing a P3 within the ELMS-supporting Le Mans Cup having been a fixture in worldwide sportscars for a dozen or extra years.
But when there have been any aficionados of junior single-seaters within the paddock, they might have understood that there have been now two drivers of the identical title on the town.
That’s as a result of Bell had raced opener wheelers to some impact within the late 2000s and early 2010s. But the confusion may very well be forgiven as a result of he had just about disappeared after just one full season within the 2013 BRDC Formulation 4 Championship.
Two years on, the befuddlement has dissipated – not solely does he now go by his full title of Matthew Richard Bell, however he’s twice been runner-up within the ELMS P3 standings.
The returning Matt Bell grew to become Matt R Bell and now Matthew Richard Bell, he says, “to attempt to distinguish” himself from his namesake: “There was a variety of confusion initially. Even the ELMS obtained it incorrect, it put his face with my title on some stuff.”
The confusion wasn’t shocking given Bell’s lengthy absence from the cockpit. There have been a handful of Radical races in 2015, however other than that he hadn’t raced because the cash ran out after an F4 marketing campaign through which Bell was a race winner towards the likes of Jake Hughes, Seb Morris and Charlie Robertson. It wasn’t till 2021 that Bell returned to racing for a full marketing campaign.
The Radical connection is a crucial one in Bell’s story. He’d raced sporadically in Formulation BMW and Formulation Palmer Audi in 2007-10 earlier than sitting out 2011. However he and his father had purchased an SR3 for monitor days.
Bell campaigned single-seaters however by no means managed a full season
Photograph by: Motorsport Photographs
“We had the automobile and thought we’d as properly race it,” recollects Bell, who returned to competitors within the Radical Clubmans Cup the next 12 months. That was a precursor to what stands as his solely full marketing campaign in single-seaters in 2013.
“After we went to F4 it was just about the identical set-up as with the Radical to begin with; simply me, my dad and a mate, operating the automobile off a trailer,” Bell explains. “It was a brand new championship and we received the primary race at Silverstone, however when the large groups obtained the cling of the automobile, we went backwards.”
Bell subsequently targeting the household renewable vitality firm, save for these Radical appearances in 2015. He returned by probability six years later when he obtained a late pre-season name from outdated pal Rob Wheldon at RAW Motorsports, who’d helped him out again in 2012.
Bell insists that he has no racing ambitions past making it third time fortunate in P3 in 2025 and being invited to hitch the British Racing Drivers’ Membership
“Rob rang me and informed me that they’d had somebody pull out on the final second and requested if I’d fancy coming again,” Bell remembers. “I assumed, ‘you realize what, I do’. It was solely a couple of week earlier than the primary race and I needed to do the ARDS flag check once more on-line to regain my licence.”
Bell received the 2021 Problem title aboard an SR3 however discovered himself on the sidelines once more at the beginning of the next 12 months. His return got here courtesy of the driving force he’d overwhelmed into second place in Radicals, Jerome de Sadeleer. The Swiss beneficial Bell to the Eurointernational workforce when it was on the lookout for a fast bronze-rated driver for P3.
Bell was set to sub for de Sadeleer on the Monza ELMS spherical in 2022, however the plan was scuppered when his FIA driver grading got here via as silver. He efficiently appealed his unique classification for 2022 on the grounds that he hadn’t held a race licence for a number of years earlier than his return in Radicals.
The transfer as much as P3 for 2022 occurred due to the connection made with Eurointernational, the successor to workforce boss Antonio Ferrari’s Euromotorsport operation that had run in CART and IMSA in North America within the Nineteen Nineties. In his first season, he and Canadian Adam Ali took a distant runner-up spot of their Ligier-Nissan JSP320, however the Briton describes this 12 months’s championship “because the one which obtained away”. He and Ali have been forward going into the Algarve finale and have been pipped to the title by a single level.
Bell (left) has carried out strongly with Eurointernational Ligier within the ELMS alongside Ali, ending an in depth second this 12 months
Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Photographs
Bell insists that he has no racing ambitions past making it third time fortunate in P3 in 2025 and being invited to hitch the British Racing Drivers’ Membership.
“So far as life experiences go, I’m having a good time,” he says. “If I’ve to cease once more, I’ll have the ability to say I’m a double ELMS vice-champion and, hopefully after subsequent 12 months, a champion and a BRDC member.”
Matthew Richard Bell CV
Age 342024 European Le Mans Collection, 2nd LMP32023 European Le Mans Collection, 2nd LMP32021 Radical Problem, champion2015 Radical Enduro Championship, 6 races2013 BRDC F4 Championship, 3 wins 2012 Radical Clubmans Cup, third 2010 Formulation Palmer Audi, 3 races2009 Formulation BMW Europe, 2 races2008 Formulation Palmer Audi, 5 races2007 Formulation BMW UK, 6 races
Bell has loved his sudden profession revival and hopes to be again on the ELMS grid subsequent 12 months
Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Photographs
On this article
Gary Watkins
European Le Mans
Eurointernational
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