Aaron Steele finished an excellent ninth and 10th at Donington Park on his debut in the fiercely contested Porsche Carrera Cup.

The one-off VIP weekend came courtesy of the Porsche Cars GB team and was Steele's reward for being one of the six finalists in the Carrera Cup GB Scholarship – aimed at finding the country's next star driver.

Steele, 20, a finalist in last year's McLaren Autosport BRDC Awards, impressed from the moment he stepped into the 170mph Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (Type 997), finishing Thursday's test session 10th quickest overall. The single-seater ace continued his flying start to the weekend in qualifying on Saturday, lapping the 2.5 mile Leicestershire circuit in 1m09.961s and 1m10.387s to line up eighth and 10th for races one and two respectively.
Of Sunday's opening race, Steele, who lives in Rochester, said: “It was a very early start; the lights went out just after nine o'clock which was a challenge in itself! I got slightly boxed in on the run down to the first corner because of my starting position on the left-hand side on the grid, but I hung on and eventually made my way up to seventh. I out-braked myself later in the race and fell down to 11th but I was able to take the chequered flag in ninth place – a great result given that the car had such a different feel to anything I'd ever driven before.” Round two was made more tricky when rain began to fall just minutes before the start, forcing every team to switch their drivers to wet weather tyres. The 23-lap race was also shown live to an audience of thousands on digital TV channel ITV4.

Steele, a BRDC 'Rising Star', explained: “The rain meant a mad dash to bolt the wets onto the car but from my perspective I was able to sit in the car while the mechanics did their thing. I had two installation laps to glean as much information as I could about the Porsche in wet conditions, as it was the first time I'd driven in the rain all weekend. I made a good start, maintained my position and from then on it was a rather long and lonely race. The guys in front had much more experience in the wet and were able to pull away but I was able to put some distance between myself and the half a dozen or so drivers behind me. Our set up was effectively a dry one with a couple of tweaks, so the car was a bit of a handful in the wet. Bearing that in mind, I was happy just to make the chequered flag!”

Steele's Carrera Cup debut came just a fortnight after he raced in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Brands Hatch, where he finished the rookie practice session in ninth place and lapped just 1.2s outside the A1GP track record. He is now hoping to attract sponsorship to secure himself a permanent drive for the remainder of the year and is not ruling out a return to the Porsche Carrera Cup before the season finale in early October.

Steele concluded: “I think I showed a lot of people what I'm capable of and proved that I have plenty of promise. Hopefully the teams will have picked up on my performance this weekend. I'm always looking to the future, I'll never stop trying and I'll do my best in every opportunity that I'm given. The Carrera Cup Championship is run exceptionally well; Porsche is a very professional and very well-organised outfit and that makes it such a great category to race in. I can't thank Porsche enough for this opportunity.”

Notes to editors:

Results, race one: 1. Michael Caine (Motorbase Performance) 26m53.694s; 2. Tim Harvey (Red Line Racing) +0.112s; 3. James Sutton (Red Line Racing) +0.144s; 4. Tom Bradshaw (Team Parker Racing) +9.057s; 5. Robert Lawson (JHR) +19.915s; 6. Tony Gilham (Red Line Racing) +23.593s; 7. Derek Pierce (JHR) +29.868s; 8. Ollie Jackson (Motorbase Performance) +32.440s;

9. Aaron Steele (Porsche Cars GB) +36.619s; 10. Karl Leonard (RSS Performance) +1m03.465s.
Results, race two: 1. James Sutton (Red Line Racing) 31m16.268s; 2. Tim Bridgman (Team Parker Racing) +2.684s; 3. Tim Harvey (Red Line Racing) +17.498s; 4. Tom Bradshaw (Team Parker Racing) +25.748s; 5. Glynn Geddie (Team Parker Racing) +26.848s; 6. Michael Caine (Motorbase Performance) +45.854s; 7. Robert Lawson (JHR) +51.174s; 8. Michael Leonard (Team Parker Racing) +56.486s; 9. Tony Gilham (Red Line Racing) +56.754s; 10. Aaron Steele (Porsche Cars GB) 1m07.421s.

The 2009 Porsche Carrera Cup Championship is a support series for the HiQ British Touring Car Championship and visits nine of the UK's most exciting and challenging race circuits. The next rounds are held at Oulton Park in Cheshire on May 30 and 31. Further information about the Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain is available online at http://tinyurl.com/qqq7ut.

Press contact:
Kevin Steele
Mobile: 07958 746843
Email: kevin@aaronsteeleracing.com