Sure, Steve Wilbur enjoyed his super sportsman win last Sunday in front of a hometown crowd at Williams Grove Speedway. However, as the happiness fades from the victory, it’s the joy that the super sportsman class brings that keeps him smiling.
“Take the wings off, take budget and money out of the equation — it’s all driver in this division,” Wilbur, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, said. “I’ve never been out-motored. Everything I did from the seat and the steering wheel got me the win. Nothing outside of my control in the cockpit will beat me.”
The super sportsman class still runs with wings, but mostly at BAPS Motor Speedway in York Haven. Most of the events for the division are wingless, with a big chunk of the races at Path Valley Speedway Park in Spring Run.
The super sportsman division also tours, though, hitting Pennsylvania tracks Bedford Speedway, Big Diamond Speedway, Lincoln Speedway, Port Royal Speedway, Selinsgrove Speedway, as well as Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland.
Under the hood, the super sportsman typically run 358-cubic-inch power plants. While the cars resemble a sprint car, the chassis differs from what traditional sprint cars use.
“It is basically a sprint car with the bottom rails of the chassis being 2″ x 4″ boxed steel instead of a round tube,” said Wilbur. “The cars are affordable and live a long time. They can take a beating.”
The super sportsman also offers another key difference from traditional sprint cars, besides power steering.
“When we started booking tracks a few years back, promoters would use the excuse that they do not have enough push trucks,” Wilbur said. “We surprised them — our sprint cars have starters.”
Steve Wilbur has more than 30 wins in the super sportsman class. He also has two track championships at Path Valley Speedway Park, and two tour titles. With a win already under his belt for 2024, he has his eyes set on the division’s biggest race ever. That’ll take place on July 26 at Big Diamond Speedway.
“It will be $5,000 to win,” said Wilbur of the race. “That’s the most money we have raced for. We came straight out of the box to win this weekend. Now, we’ll have to keep that momentum up through the season.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
