Every Saturday night you can find Justen Steigerwalt greeting race fans as they enter Grandview Speedway. However, this past Friday you found Steigerwalt also in victory lane at the Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania, dirt oval. He had won in the big car class for the Outlaw Racing Series Enduro.
Once in a while, Steigerwalt ventures to the other side of the fence, driving his 2004 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. He’s worked at the track every week for 20 years. Enduros for Steigerwalt are his getaway.
“I’ve been racing in the enduros since they first were scheduled at Grandview Speedway back in 2009,” Steigerwalt, of Boyertown, Pennsylvania, said. “The attraction is that it is cheap, affordable racing. Working at the speedway on Saturdays, driving gives me a unique experience and a different view on Fridays.”
Steigerwalt’s history in racing goes back before Grandview Speedway. He and his now wife, Stephanie, competed in demolition derbies.
“Stephanie did quite well in the ladies’ demo derbies,” said Steigerwalt. “Enduros seemed like a safer alternative, so we got an enduro car. Stephanie stopped driving when we started a family. We now have two children, Noah and Alaina, who are racing karts. They race on Sundays, so our schedule is full every weekend.”
In fact, Noah won a feature a week before his father. Alaina won the Sunday after.
Friday marked the end of a five-year winning drought for Steigerwalt. His biggest enduro win came in 2013 at Outlaw Speedway in Dundee, New York.
“It was a $5,000 win — definitely the biggest win of my career as an enduro driver,” Steigerwalt said. “Now, I’m having a lot of fun racing for $300 to win — and it works. The expense is gas and tires — and usually the tires last the season. If you don’t get into trouble on the racetrack, there is nothing to repair.”
Justen Steigerwalt loves what he does. Greeting fans. Racing enduros. Being a father for his children competing in karts.
“It all works,” said Steigerwalt. “I plan on racing enduros as long as I can.”
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.
Photographers
The Outside Groove contributor from Macungie, Pennsylvania, has covered the sport since 2012. Sabo serves as the official track photographer of Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania. Photography is a family ordeal for Sabo. He shoots with his daughter, Abby, at Shellhammer Dirt Track in Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania. At Grandview and other venues Sabo travels to, he and his father, Stephen “Poppa Pepper” Sabo Sr., capture the night’s action with their cameras.
