Steele
Impresses with Top-5 in PRO-2 @ Bark River
Madison, WI
(July 14, 2010) - Keith Steele one of the most successful
Sportsman Short-Course competitors in recent memory is on a
mission. After winning back-to-back Championships, the Madison,
Wisconsin native is taking on the PRO drivers with his under
powered #29 Monster Energy Chevrolet. After a disappointing
weekend at the high-horsepower venue in Crandon, Steele Off-Road
Racing was optimistic for better finishes at the more technical
Bark River International Raceway.
Keith Steele
isn't known as "The Man in Black"just for his clean cut black
racing attire and black Chevy race truck, but also for his no
nonsense, tell it like it is approach to his racing. Keith isn't
outspoken, just honest and straight forward. That attitude is
exactly why he's taking on the established Superstars of the
TORC PRO ranks.
"I've
accomplished everything I can at the Sportsman level," states
Keith Steele. "My goal is to race at the highest level, full
time, and that's PRO-2. In the off-season our
team worked diligently looking for a marketing
partner that would get us to PRO-2. Unfortunately that didn't
happen. Monster Energy made us an offer, but that left the title
sponsor opportunity still available. Somehow we are here running
with the PROs, but on a shoestring budget. There are certain
tracks where horsepower is king and I have no shot at the win,
but others like Oshkosh and Chicagoland, the opportunity to
finish on the podium is a possibility. As season moves forward,
Steele Off-Road Racing continues to pursue sponsorship
opportunities and at the same time, continues to race for a
podium finish."
Round 3 and 4
of the Traxxas TORC Series presented by AMSOIL was held in Bark
River, Michigan. The all-natural 1.4 mile layout is half
high-speed superspeedway and half technical with sweeping turns
one after another. In other words, only a portion of the track
was to Keith's current strong suit.
Saturday
Round 3 had the entire PRO-2 race field put some distance on the
Monster Energy Kumho Tire Chevrolet right from the start. Keith
pushed the truck as hard as he could, but finished the race at
the tail end of the field.
Overnight the
team performed the usual between race cleanup
and prep work, but Keith tried a few adjustments to the chassis
setup trying to get more speed out of his black Chevy Silverado.
Sunday's
Round 4 action brought a smile on Keith's face. Almost
immediately from the wave of the green flag, the #29 Chevy
seemed to run a faster pace. The field still ran in front of the
Monster Energy Chevy, but now Keith was racing with the pack.
At the
halfway mandatory yellow flag lap, Keith really had worked his
Wolverine powered Chevrolet into seventh place. Then will just
over a lap to go, Dan Vanden Heuvel and Round 3 winner Mike
Oberg tangled right in front of the #29 Chevy. Keith avoided the
incident and picked up two more positions. When the checkered
flag came out Keith Steele came home in fifth place.
"Today was
almost as good as a win for our
team," noted Keith Steele. "Our 2010 race budget
is currently less than ten percent of the winner today. We
passed a few trucks today and that's a major accomplishment
considering we are at least 200 horsepower less than the guys on
today's podium. Now I can't wait to get to Oshkosh. A couple of
years ago I took this Sportsman truck to podium finish in
PRO-2. It would really be cool to do it again."
Next Race:
July 23-24,as the Traxxas TORC Series presented by AMSOIL heads
to the Oshkosh Speedzone in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Don't forget you can watch all the
archived TORC race action and well as live racing from Oshkosh @www.torcseries.com
Keith Steele
would like to thank all its product supporters, including:
Monster
Energy, J & H Transmission, Kumho Tires, Yank Torque
Converters, R2C Filters,Wolverine Performance, King Shocks, and
Phil's Inc.
Keith Steele
and his Steele Off-Road Race
Team still have marketing opportunities
available for the 2010 Race season.
Interested parties can email Izzy Steele:
info@steeleoffroad.com
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