Steele¹s Daytona drive cut short after gearbox failure

28th January 2012

Gearbox failure cut short Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 winner Aaron Steele¹s 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 Mitchum Motorsport Camaro 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 53rd place overall (34th
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 14th 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 53rd overall on the grid to 27th at the end of the opening lap.
 
³The race started well. I kept it on the track, which was the priority and
kept out of trouble,² said Steele. ³It¹s a two and a half hour race and you
can¹t win it on the first lap but you can certainly loose it. I¹d not driven
the car in the wet but I gradually built up a feel for things.²
 
Aaron continued on his charge and was up in 22nd 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.
 
²We 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.²
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.
 
³ 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,² said Chris Mitchum, Mitchum Team
Principal. ³We 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 ­ that¹s racing for you anything can happen.²
 
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.
 
³I want to thank Anglo American oil for this opportunity- of course its an
unfortunate end but hey I got to drive at Daytona! It doesn¹t 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.²
 
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.
 
 

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