My Favorite Cigar
Justin Bell • Race Car Driver • Casa Carrillo Encore Majestic
Justin Bell is quite accustomed to going quite fast. The 58-year-old enjoyed a 25-year racing career that included victories at the FIA GT World Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours. Now, he’s a TV and web host who can be seen at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the weekly Formula 1 show “Drive to Wynn!” from Las Vegas.
“It’s very rhythmic, it’s deliberate,” he says of the sensation of driving fast. “Then when you race, it’s about competition—it’s all about beating the other guy . . . and I love the fact that there’s an element of risk to it.”
Bell was given his first cigar by his father, decorated driver Derek Bell, and today he smokes most of his cigars with his son Oliver, who works part time in a cigar shop. Bell loves how cigars slow things down.
“We sit outside in the garden. It’s not every night, but it’s regularly. We sit outside and we actually talk—no one is sitting on their phone when smoking a cigar.”
Bell enjoys a variety of cigars, from Oliva Serie V Melanios to Chateau Fuentes from Arturo Fuente, but names the Casa Carrillo Encore Majestic, a former Cigar of the Year, as his favorite.
