“To be the man, you must beat the man,” champion wrestler Ric Flair would often say, and Dillon Steuer did just that. Steuer fended off multi-time champion Matt Sheppard for his first Short Track Super Series victory. Sheppard (pictured left) congratulated Steuer in victory lane at Port Royal Speedway.
“Matt walked up and said I drove a great race,” Steuer, of Bohemia, New York, said. “You have to understand, I don’t normally get a chance to talk to other drivers — we are all busy in the pits before the race. This moment was special — one of the greatest drivers in the sport of dirt modified racing had words of praise for me.”
Sheppard started the race from 12th, Steuer from second. Although Sheppard had more ground to cover to reach first, he battled Steuer for the lead.
“Matt ran me hard and ran me clean — I couldn’t ask for more,” said Steuer. “It is not an easy task to win when you have Matt Sheppard pressuring me. When a racer like Matt puts up a hard challenge, and you’re able to come away with a win, it adds more meaning to the win. It became more of an accomplishment for me.”
Last year, Steuer didn’t experience the same success at Port Royal Speedway. Then, he ran a small block. This year he opted for a big block.
“You never know, next time it could be a small block that would do better at Port Royal Speedway,” Steuer said. “A lot went into getting to this point. Last year we spent time more so on getting this family team set up. We had limited resources. With one season down, we had a solid winter program to go through every little thing to find more speed. Last season we were slapped together, this season we are fine tuned.”
Dillon Steuer works on his three cars, one owned by David Zubikowski and the rest by his family team. His father, Chuck, a former champion pavement racer at Riverhead Raceway, helps Dillon when he can.
“Our goal this season is to go to races being perfect,” said Steuer. “Being perfectly prepared means not having to make drastic changes at the track. The trick about dirt racing is that any given night the track could be different. You have to take every note possible to be prepared for your car to work right for you.”
His plans this season include the full Short Track Super Series South Region and Bridgeport Motorsports Park schedules, as well as five specials at Orange County Fair Speedway.
“I’ll take the season one race at a time,” Steuer said. “I’m still trying to learn — there’s a lot more to learn about dirt modifieds. There are guys who have been racing dirt modifieds for 30 years and still learning. Everything constantly changes.”
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.
