Next Friday sees the 2012 Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 winner and 2011 F3 Cup Champion, Aaron Steele, take part in the race of his life – the Continental Tire Challenge, GRAND-AM 200 at Daytona. Steele won the drive through the Sunoco GRAND-AM Challenge program and the 23 year old can’t wait to get out to the States and race.“Daytona is rapidly approaching; it only seems like yesterday I was racing in the rain at Brands Hatch, and in less than a week’s time I’ll be on the banks of Daytona.....it’s mad!” Said Aaron, “the nerves are starting and the excitement is growing. It was an added bonus to be able to test with the team at Daytona a few weeks ago and doing so has really helped to build my confidence up in driving on such a big circuit and in a completely different type of race car.”Aaron will be racing in the No6 Mitchum Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro alongside team mate Tim Bell.

Bell contested his first season in professional motorsport last year in the GRAND-AM Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge Street Tuner Series with Doran Racing. 2012 has seen Tim sign with Mitchum Motorsport for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. Bell drove with Mitchum in the 13 hours of Virginia International Raceway along with Joey Atterbury and Bret Spaude. The trios result gave Mitchum’s team principle Chris Mitchum a reason to test Bell at Daytona in November and resulted in the team signing Tim for the full season. 

"I was really impressed with the Camaro and the team's camaraderie during testing and the 13 Hours at VIR," Bell said. "With Chris Mitchum's leadership, we should be in a perfect position for a championship run in 2012. I'm also very excited about having the opportunity to drive with such a talented driver like Aaron Steele at Daytona.”

With 2 young and talented drivers behind the wheel of the No.6 Camaro, Chris Mitchum is confident for a good race result."Aaron did a tremendous job adapting to American racing at the Roar test.  It is quite difficult given the different rules, different track, different car type and multi-driver format,” said Chris Mitchum, Mitchum Team Principle. “The test was crucial for Aaron to gain an understanding of the cars ability and also the functionality of the series. This Camaro GS.R in the Continental Series is a very unique animal and the competition is second to none.  Aaron is the type of young driver that all of us are looking for in this series and I am confident that with the knowledge he gained during the test and his raw driving talent he will be able to compete with the top drivers at Daytona!”The Continental Tire Challenge GRAND-AM 200 race is, as its name suggests, a 200 mile race with a 2.5 hour time limit. It is the support race to the Rolex 24 At Daytona which this year will be celebrating its 50th anniversary.“I’m looking forward to not only the race, but also the 50th anniversary event as a whole,” said Aaron. “The Continental Tire, GRAND-AM 200 race is on the Friday of the weekend - so after the race I will be free to enjoy the rest of the 24 hour event and cheer on my fellow challenge winner, Felipe Nasr.”