ja_mageia

Justin Bell Sweeps Pirelli World Challenge GTS Races in St. Petersburg for Children’s Tumor Foundation / Racing4Research and eBay Motors and Mobile

Late Pass Gives Bell Second Weekend Win and First Career Sweep in the No. 50 Tiger Racing Ford Mustang Boss 302S

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (March 25, 2012) – Justin Bell scored the first race-weekend sweep in his 25-year motorsports career in the season-opening event of the Pirelli World Challenge at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg where he backed up yesterday’s opening race win with an equally convincing victory Sunday morning in the No. 50 Tiger Racing Ford Mustang Boss 302S.

The victories are Bell’s first in World Challenge (WC) competition in addition to being firsts in WC for the Children’s Tumor Foundation's (CTF) Racing4Research program and Bell’s partners eBay Motors and Mobile.

Like yesterday, when he won from seventh on the starting grid, Bell had to race through the field again on Sunday. Although he started second, a stalled car in front of him as the green flag dropped quickly put Bell outside of the top-10 in the running order.

“Yesterday was full of unknowns for me,” Bell said. “I had the element of surprise on people and they didn’t know what I was going to be up to. Today I had a car stall in front of me right at the start and I may have been as far down as 12th into the first corner. I was really motivated, after dropping to like the sixth row right at the start, to come back and at least get a podium for the team.”

Bell began to pick up positions before zeroing in on race leader Peter Cunningham just as he did in Saturday’s race. His winning pass once again came in Turn 1, but this time it was less than two laps from the finish, the only race laps Bell led all day.

“The overtaking I had to do was just right on the edge of not being able to make it,” Bell said. “The smallest gap they gave me I went through, but Cunningham was incredibly fair. He went wide, I was actually going to set him up for Turn 4, but he suddenly went wide in Turn 1 and I was like, ‘that’s it, I am done.’ I don’t know who would have come off worse if we hit, but he was incredibly fair and I think he may have known I had him at that point.”

Bell is substitute driving in 2012’s opening WC rounds for reigning class champion and Tiger Racing manager Paul Brown, who is recovering from minor surgery. Bell brought both the backing from eBay Motors and Mobile and his partnership and relationship with the CTF / Racing4Research program with him to the team.

“I am just incredibly happy and thankful to Paul Brown for putting me in the car,” Bell said. “For eBay Motors and Mobile for inviting me and, of course, for these great CTF kids wandering around and supporting us when they have so much else going on, it was all just fantastic.”

About two dozen young NF patients, or “heroes,” and their families visited with Bell and other WC teams at the track this weekend. The CTF / Racing4Research program increases awareness of neurofibromatosis (NF) and raises funds for research to find effective treatments for the debilitating disorder. Donations for the cause can be made at www.ctf.org where additional information on the program, the Foundation, and NF can also be found.

Bell first joined the CTF / Racing4Research program this past January, co-driving a Porsche GT3 in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, and was honored to be racing for the cause again this weekend.

“We came off Daytona on an emotional high if not a success high,” Bell said. “This makes up for a bad result there in the Rolex 24.”

Bell is currently preparing for his second season as the host of The World’s Fastest Car Show Hosted by Justin Bell, a unique web, mobile and app-accessible show available only at eBay Motors and on eBay Mobile.
Next up for Justin Bell and the No. 50 Tiger Racing Ford Mustang Boss 302S team is Round 2 of the Pirelli World Challenge at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 13 – 15.

About the Children's Tumor Foundation and Racing4Research: Developed by the Children’s Tumor Foundation, the Racing4Research (R4R) program utilizes competitive, professional auto racing as a vehicle to increase awareness of neurofibromatosis and raise funds for research through corporate sponsorship, personal donations, and individual fundraising by NF Heroes: children and adults from around the country who live with neurofibromatosis. NF affects one in every 3,000 children, more than cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Huntington’s disease combined, and can lead to a wide variety of complications, including blindness, bone abnormalities, cancer, deafness, disfigurement, learning disabilities and excruciating and disabling pain. The Racing4Research program offers children and families living with the disorder a uniquely empowering weekend, and has raised over $1.5 million dollars since its inception five years ago. Donations can be made at www.racing4research.org.

On March 15, 2012, Stanford Hospital announced the launch of a new program, led by Dr. Steven Chang, to treat rare tumor-multiplying diseases.

Stanford's program includes a team of 12 specialists in several fields: neurosurgery, epilepsy, neuro-ophthalmology, neuro-oncology, neuro-otology, neuro-interventional radiology, urology, and general surgery. 

"The goal," Chang said, "is to give cutting-edge care for conditions like Knodel's, neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2) and others including another form of neurofibromatosis, schwannomatosis tuberous sclerosis, von Hippel-Lindau disease, Sturge Weber syndrome and hemorrhagic telangiectasia."

Please click here to read more.

Valentine’s Day Weekend's Cupid's Undie Run a HUGE Success; Raises $300,000+ for Children’s Tumor Foundation!

Putting the “hilarity” back in “charity,” on February 11, 2012 nearly 3,000 runners nationwide stripped down to their undies and braved the frigid February temps to raise money and awareness for a rather “undie-scussed” issue, neurofibromatosis (NF). Benefiting the Children’s Tumor Foundation, this effort raised more than $300,000 for medical research into treatments for NF. 

Washington D.C.’s wildly popular Cupid’s Undie Run expanded its jaw-dropping charity race to New York, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Denver, and Seattle. Even with five first-year cities, the event sold out in almost every market. It seems Cupid’s has struck a nerve! 

Locals in each city lined the streets to catch the hundreds of scantily-clad joggers racing along Pennsylvania Ave in D.C., 15th Street in NYC, and the waterfront in Seattle, among other locales. 

Cupid’s story is simple: friends Brendan Hanrahan, Chad Leathers, and Bobby GIll founded the event two years ago in D.C., inspired by Leathers’ youngest brother Drew who lives with schwannomatosis.  The team wanted to keep the "fun" in fundraising, and there is no doubt that they have succeeded. Their crazy idea has not only turned heads, but turned a local event into a national movement. 

"What’s so amazing about Cupid’s,” commented co-founder Chad Leathers of the Chidren's Tumor Foundation, “is the level of passion exhibited from runners, spectators, donors, and our volunteer directors. It is truly awe inspiring!” 

Voted "Best Winter Event” in D.C. by The Washington Post in 2011, Cupid’s will surely be vying for similar honors nationwide.

For more information on the event, registration, or making a tax-deductible donation, please visit www.cupidsundierun.com.  For sponsorship or media inquiries, please contact Bobby Gill at bobby@cupidsundierun.com.  To see more photos, please click here.

Cupid's Undie Run starting line in NYC  [Photo credit: Daniel Pagel - DSPstudios.org]

Drew Leathers, Matt Stinchcomb, Jon Stinchcomb, and friends at Cupid's Undie Run Atlanta

                As neurofibromatosis clinical trials increase in number, the clinicians leading them are keen to design the trials to be as effective and meaningful as possible. A key part of this effort is developing the right trial endpoints - measures and metrics that can be used to determine if a drug or intervention is effective or not.  To tackle this area, a team of neurofibromatosis clinicians and researchers has formed  a working group called Response Evaluation in Neurofibromatosis and Schwannomatosis (REiNS). Spearheaded by Dr. Scott Plotkin (MGH) and Dr. Brigitte Widemann (NCI) and first convened in June at the Children’s Tumor Foundation 2011 NF Conference, around 30 leading NF clinicans and researchers participating in the REiNS met in Boston to continue their planning and discussions.

                Past endpoints for neurofibromatosis clinical trials have included changes in maximum tumor dimension on MRI scans or changes in cognitive function on neuropsychological assessment (for learning disabilities).  Looking ahead, more advanced endpoints under discussion (and already being piloted in some cases) include volumetric tumor analysis and whole body MRIs; and the use of biomarkers – biological indicators in the blood or other body fluids to determine if a drug is working. REiNS members have organized into groups to focus on different measures and plan to meet every few months to continue advancing this project.

                The Children’s Tumor Foundation is delighted to be investing in endpoint development through our Clinical Research Awards program.  Currently our funded projects include developing a computerized test for more accurate assessment of learning disabilities trials; identifying a blood biomarker of NF1 status; and developing measures of response for optic pathway glioma trials. We will be announcing more funded awards in early 2012. 

                Clinicians or researchers interested in participating in REiNS can contact Vanessa Merker at MGH: vmerker@partners.org.