Steele’s Daytona drive cut short

Gearbox failure cut short Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 winner Aaron Steele’s Daytona prize drive. Steele put in a strong performance and had a sterling start but on his twelfth lap smoke started coming from the car and the MitchumMotorsportCamaro had to retire from the race.

Problems started in qualifying when engine trouble limited Steele to only a couple of laps; meaning he qualified the Camaro in 53^rd place overall (34^th out of the GS class). The Mitchum team worked hard to change the engine in time for the race and in the final practice Aaron put in a strong run, getting the car up to 14^th place at the end of his stint.

The Continental Tire GRAND-AM 200 race started under wet conditions; something that Aaron is used to and he was confident that he could use it to his advantage. Steele made a charging start and made up an impressive 26 places from 53^rd overall on the grid to 27^th at the end of the opening lap.

“The race started well. I kept it on the track, which was the priority and kept out of trouble,” said Steele. “It’s a two and a half hour race and you can’t win it on the first lap but you can certainly loose it. I’d not driven the car in the wet but I gradually built up a feel for things.”

Aaron continued on his charge and was up in 22^nd place when the track begun to dry out and a pit stop to change to slicks was needed. Just a few seconds after the pit stop, Steele was up on the banking when smoke started coming out of the car.

”We came in for slicks and to refuel – after the pit stop there was a lot of smoke coming from the car. The team told me to keep going but fluid leaking from the gearbox sadly forced us to into retirement.”

Unfortunately there was nothing the team could do but bring the car in where the gearbox failure was discovered and the team decided to take the decision to retire from the race.

“ If we go back to where Aaron was at the test his improvement has been huge. The speed he was running in the practice was great and his lap times were matching those of the front runners,” said Chris Mitchum, Mitchum Team Principal

“We just had an unfortunate mechanical failure and sadly today the repairs would have taken longer than the whole race. The whole team were really happy with Aaron and I just wish we could have had a better result but like everyone always says – that’s racing for you anything can happen.”

Despite the disappointing end to his Daytona prize drive, Aaron remains positive about his experience and hopes this will not be his last time at Daytona.

“I want to thank Anglo American oil for this opportunity- of course its an unfortunate end but hey I got to drive at Daytona! It doesn’t matter if you are at Daytona or Donington Park this could happen anywhere. Unfortunately you just have to get on with it. I can take with me the confidence that I jump into any car and drive it. The Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 Challenge is a fantastic prize and to get this opportunity to come out and do this has been amazing.”

The Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 Challenge continues for this year and the competition is set to be bigger and better as drivers compete for a seat in the 2013 Continental Tires, GRAND-AM 200 race. Details will be released shortly on the 2013 programme. See www.sunoco200challenge.com