Special from ARCA Racing:
3-Time ARCA RE/MAX Series
Champion Tim Steele Retires
COOPERSVILLE, MI (6-27-07) – If
there was ever a natural born race driver, it may be said that Tim
Steele fitted into that category like a glove.
But for the three-time ARCA RE/MAX
Series national driving champion, it just didn’t feel
natural
anymore.
“It took me nine and a half years to get there,”
said Steele. “But the last time I was in a car, it just didn’t feel
natural anymore. It seems like I’ve struggled with this decision
forever; but I always told myself that if I ever got scared it was
time to get out; or that if I ever felt like I had lost my God-given
ability, it was time to get out.”
For Steele, 39, that time has come. The
Coopersville, Michigan driver has officially announced his retirement
from driving.
After a very successful career in
the ARCA RE/MAX Series that produced championships in ’93, ’96 and
’97, and more superspeedway victories than any other driver in series
history, Steele was on the verge of signing a contract to race
fulltime in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. Then a crash at Atlanta
Motor Speedway on November 5th, 1997 left him with a closed
head injury and changed his world forever.
“I was 10 days away from signing a Winston Cup
contract when I crashed; and we were going to run for the 1998 Cup
Rookie of the Year. My dad and (Green Bay Packers quarterback) Brett
Favre were purchasing the team from Bud Moore, and we had Nike and
Sony lined up as sponsors.
“Looking back in ’98 when I was at
the Mayo Clinic, I now know the doctors were right when they told me I
should probably find a different career.
“I just wasn’t willing to accept
that; it was like admitting defeat. Racing was my life; it’s how I
earned my living, and the only job I ever had since I was 20. I didn’t
know anything else, so it was so hard to walk away from my life. I had
worked so hard to get where I had gotten. I just couldn’t give up on
it now.”
Unfortunately, there would be
ongoing, residual physical and personal issues that would plague
Steele during his comeback phase of his career. Regardless, it’s worth
noting that despite the ongoing struggles, Steele still managed 11
more ARCA RE/MAX Series victories after the accident.
From 1993 through 2006, Steele,
driving his father Harold Steele’s HS Die entries, won 41 ARCA RE/MAX
Series races in 146 attempts, which equates to victories in 28% of all
the races he entered. Steele is still the all-time superspeedway
winner with 24 victories, including nine at Pocono Raceway, which
still tops the charts. Through it all, he earned 86 top-five finishes,
101 top-10s and led 5,423 laps in 93 races. That means that Steele led
laps in 64% of every race he entered, a feat unmatched yet today. He
also won 31 career pole awards.
ARCA President Ron Drager was
witness to Steele’s ascension through the ARCA ranks from start to
finish.
“Tim Steele, at his best, was as
good a driver as there ever has been in the ARCA RE/MAX Series,” said
Drager. “His statistics place him at or near the top of nearly every
category in the 55-year history of our series, especially in
superspeedway competition. While he has had to forgo what was at one
time an exceptionally promising driving career, it's great to see that
he can continue to participate in the sport, and you can bet he'll
prove to be just as competitive as ever in his new role.”
His new role requires the
transition from driver to owner.
“I’ve tried different things with
my Dad, out at his ranch in South Dakota and with all the things he’s
got going on while still racing my late model. But doing other work
outside of racing didn’t always feel right either. I just didn’t live
for it like I did racing.
“The day we crashed at Toledo
testing our late model earlier this year, I was driving my bike home
after the wreck and I came to the decision it was time to get out, and
that was that. Johnny VanDoorn, a 19-year-old local driver from
Coopersville, had just won at Berlin, so I put him in my late model.
We went to Dixie and just cleaned up. He had three-quarters lap on the
field when the final caution came out. I mean, they were racing like
crazy for second, but not for the win. It reminded me of some of my
days in ARCA.
“Anyway, that win really lit my
fire again. I hadn’t felt that kind of desire since before the wreck
in ’97. So now I’m back at it working on racecars 12, 14, 16 hours a
day, and I’m loving every minute of it.
“Now I can take the energy I used
to spend driving and begin developing the skills necessary to build
relationships with sponsors. I can orchestrate from the owner’s seat
rather than from the driver’s seat, and I’m really looking forward to
it.”
VanDoorn
is equally excited about the opportunity.
“Teaming up with Tim Steele and HS
Motorsports will help out my career, no question about that,” VanDoorn
said. “We’ve been at the top of the speed charts ever since we started
working out of Tim’s shop and we are looking forward to more of that
in the future. HS Motorsports has a long history of running up front
and contending for wins and championships, which is what we plan on
doing. With the experience Tim and his crew chief Chip Caputo provide,
that will only speed up my learning curve.”
Steele added, “Having Johnny in our
car will be fun to watch. When I decided to stop driving, I thought
I’d miss it. But working with Johnny has been awesome. And seeing him
run a car that looks like mine will be great. Hopefully, all the fans
that I had along the way will remember that car and follow Johnny,
‘cause he has a bright future.”
The familiar red #16 CRA Super
Series cars and the Outlaw Super Late Models will carry long time
Steele sponsors: HS Die, Visi Cad/Cam, Tooling Software Technologies
and Hometown Sunoco of Cutlerville Michigan. Also on board will be
Magic Transportation who has backed VanDoorn since 2003.
Despite Steele’s newest opportunity
in the late model world, his desire to return to ARCA RE/MAX Series
competition is still at the forefront of his thoughts.
“I’ve got the name I have because
of ARCA,” added Steele. “ARCA’s been very good to me over the years,
and I’ve earned a damn-good living doing it, and I’ll do anything I
can to support it. If you’re going to bad mouth the series, better not
to do it around me. ARCA gave me the chance to get to the big time,
but I got hurt. It just wasn’t meant to be as a driver, but maybe as
an owner. I just really feel like I can go someplace with my decision
I’ve made, and I’m looking forward to it.
“My dad always said, ‘you create
your own luck; the harder you work, the luckier you get.’ Now I
finally understand it’s true. And I couldn’t be more excited about the
opportunities that lie ahead.”
Next stop for Steele and his newest
protégé VanDoorn will be the CRA Super Series late model race at
Angola Motor Speedway Saturday, June 30th.
CONTACTS:
ARCA PR/Media department (734) 847-6726
Don Radebaugh, cell (419) 450-0611
Jackie L. Franzil, cell (419) 574-2685
http://www.arcaracing.com
