TORC: Keith Steele Crandon season finale summary

Steele Learns from 2010 Season

Madison, WI (September 10, 2010) - The final race of the year finds Keith Steele and the #29 Monster Energy Kumho Tire PRO-2 Chevy making the trek to "Big House" in Crandon, Wisconsin during the Labor Day Weekend. Steele Off-Road Racing has had plenty of success in Crandon on the Sportsman level, but as the team has learned this season, the PRO level is a whole new ballgame. The improvements the team made to the truck throughout the final weekend of the season, not only made for a strong Round 12 performance, but will help the team immediately when racing resumes in 2011.

The Labor Day weekend festivities in Crandon began with constant rain showers canceling Friday's practice and qualifying as well as the Saturday morning practice session. This meant the PRO-2 lineup would be determined by the points standings. This really didn't effect Keith Steele's starting position, but it did prevent the team from getting a better handle on the changes that would be needed to run the truck with the 800 horsepower Wolverine Performance PRO-2 powerplant.

Saturday's Round 11 was more of a test session than a race for the Monster Energy Chevy. With limited information about the new handling characteristic's of the truck with the larger engine, Keith drove hard, stayed out of trouble and finished the race in eighth place.

Overnight the team went to work with the usual prep work and then made additional chassis changes to give the black Chevy additional forward bite.

Sunday's Round 12 saw Keith get serious and go racing. The field of twelve PRO-2 trucks is so competitive, at any race; every competitor has the ability to finish on the podium. The final race of the season saw the #29 Monster Energy Kumho Tire PRO-2 Chevy come alive and as the "Man in Black" ran very competitive lap times to finish in sixth place.

"When we installed the 800hp Wolverine powerplant midway through the season it was like starting from the beginning," noted Keith Steele. "Our limited budget won't allow for added testing during the season, so our chassis development isn't quite up to speed with the front runners of the class. All in all this was a successful season, for our team, we continually improved the truck and at the same time my driving ability improved as well. Our main priority during the off-season will be to find marketing partners to get this program on the same level as our competition."

-source: - www.steeleoffroad.com