Kneifel wraps up driving career.

Fresh from his first weekend as CART's new chief steward, Chris Kneifel concluded his competitive racing career in the 12 Hours of Sebring last Saturday.

Kneifel, along with co-drivers Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell, finished third in the GTS class and eleventh overall driving a Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, after a troubled race that never looked likely to let the crew repeat its Daytona 24Hr victory.

"Going into the Sebring race, it was our goal to win the GTS class," Kneifel said, "Our record at Sebring is not one that we were proud of. It's been our Achilles Heel and we knew we had a challenge ahead of us, because we've never gotten to the six-hour mark without running into some kind of problem in that race. Sure enough, the #3 car guys - with myself and Ron and Johnny - had problems.

"We couldn't start the car, then we had problems with the timing, which were compounded by the fact that we couldn't start the car. We run carbon brakes on the car that should last 24 hours, but after four hours we were changing rotors. Due to those problems, it took us out of being able to win. But we stayed focused and were able to get third. That's important for Ron and Johnny for the points, because I know it's going to be close at the end of the year, and it's also important because we showed we could stay focused and work through the problems in a race we very well could have been out of.

"For me, being on the podium for my last race was really special. There's a huge fan following for the Corvette programme, especially among Corvette owners, and they've become friends over the years. They made a big banner for me and everybody signed it, and they were in Victory Circle and gave the banner to me. It was a lot of good stuff. On the sad side, it's hard to leave that situation because I've developed so many friends over the years there. But the win at Daytona was still front and centre. It was the right way to finish this thing off. Now it's time for me to turn my attention and focus on my new position. Now I can let go of that part of my career and really commit to the next phase. I'm so excited. It's so important for me to do a good job for these drivers and teams - the owners and the guys working on the cars - and everybody in the CART organisation. I'm really excited to have this opportunity."