Formula for success

Appeared in August 2013 issue of Full Throttle Magazine

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

BEAVER DAM, Wis. – A long list of victories and championships in cars and trucks on dirt and asphalt didn’t satisfy Jeff Steenbergen. Something was amiss.

A winner in just about anything with wheels in his racing career, Steenbergen had never won a race while in the top division at a track or in a traveling series. The biggest hole in his career was an “A” main feature victory in the modified division at Beaver Dam Raceway, a track he often came to while growing up.

He accomplished that feat last year, winning the modified “A” main feature June 16, 2012.

“It was really special,” Steenbergen said.

What Steenbergen did to start the 2013 season in the sport modified division at Beaver Dam was special too.

The Watertown driver won the first five features of the season.

“It’s very cool,” Steenbergen said after winning the July 13 feature at Beaver Dam to make it 5 for 5. “Every week I expect it to end. This car is making me look a lot better than I am.

“It’s really hooked up on a rail.”

It sure was.

He took two years off from the sport mods, competing in the grand national division in 2011 and the modified in 2012, and travelled with the Badger Modified Tour. So dating back to 2010, when he won the sport modified track championship, Steenbergen won 11 straight “A” mains, as he won the final six features of the 2010 season en route to the championship.

That streak was halted July 20, ironically, by the driver who won 11 straight features to start the 2011 season: Zeke Bishofberger.

"Tonight was just lucky because of the track conditions and started up front," Bishofberger said after the July 20 feature. "It was a good night."

"It's always a goal: beat the best guy out here."

Up until then, Steenbergen was that guy and still maybe that guy as the season makes it was through its second half.

“It’s definitely not easy, but it’s rewarding against these guys,” Steenbergen said.

 “I think this is one of the best tracks in the state as far as competition goes,” he added. “Everybody’s really stepped up their game this year.”

Steenbergen finished third in the July 20 feature that ended the streak. Disappointed he couldn’t make it 6-for-6? Absolutely. But he knew it was coming.

"Zeke's pretty strong competition," Steenbergen said. "I'm not surprised (he won)."

During Bishofberger's championship run in 2011, there was talk of putting on a bounty on him. If Steenbergen continued to win, the talk grew louder as to whether to do the same. Bishofberger is glad no bounties were set.

"I think they're all right, but you end up with a wrecked race car a lot of times," Bishofberger said. "My dad, back in the day, had some bounties put on him and he came home with a wrecked race car a couple times."

"Bounties," he added. "There's pros and cons. I don't want to end up with a wrecked race car."

The car count was a bit lower in 2011, which Bishofberger believed took a little bit of the excitement away from winning 11 in a row. This year, that's not the case. The competition has vastly improved and so has the car count.

"I was just the class of the field ahead of everybody," he said. "But it's still tough, though. You've got to avoid accidents, play it safe, have things that don't break. There's more than just getting beat. There's beating yourself and your car."

And that’s why Bishofberger believed Steenbergen’s streak was far more impressive.

Steenbergen said he began his racing career the day after he finished high school as his mom wouldn’t let him race until then. He got sucked into racing because his father helped sponsor a Sprint Car in the 1990s.

Almost immediately, Steenbergen, a graduate of Waupun High School, proved he was a winner and was going to remain a winner on dirt or asphalt. In 2000, his rookie year of racing, he was the Formula Indy Racing Association’s Rookie of the Year, finishing second in the points. He won two races and had 17 top-five finishes in 20 starts.

In 2001, he won the Mid-American Super Truck Series Rookie of the Year, winning one race in 11 starts. He also finished in the top three in his first career road-course race (Road America).

In 2002, he brought in his first championship, winning the Mid-American Super Truck Series title, winning one race (Road America) and had 13 top-10 finishes in 14 starts.

For the next couple of years, he took to the short tracks, racing stock cars. And just like he did when he broke into the sport, Steenbergen was tough in a stock car. By 2007, he won a Big 8 Late Model Series feature and set fast time at the Slinger Nationals.

He switched to dirt in 2008, racing a legends car. He won one race in 24 starts and had 15 top-10 finishes. In 2009, he won nine features in a legends car.

This season, Steenbergen has nine feature victories between Beaver Dam, Manitowoc, Oshkosh and Lafayette County Speedway in Darlington. His goal is to win 10 features.

Why 10?

That would top his in-season total of 2009. In all, he has 41 career feature victories in his racing career, including more than 50 preliminary race victories. He has raced dirt modifieds, Midwest Super Trucks, Limited Late Models, Mid-American Stock Cars, Go-Karts, Grand National, Legends, Midgets and Formula Indy Cars and has won in all of them.

He races against others online as well.

Yet winning the modified feature in 2012 was almost the pinnacle of his career.

“That’s all I really wanted to do (at Beaver Dam), so I did more traveling after that,” he said. “It was kind of a dream come true. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time because I used to come here as a kid and watch the races.”

But don’t be fooled, it hasn’t always been this easy for Steenbergen.

Just days before the July 13 feature at Beaver Dam, he had a big crash at Darlington and had to burn a lot of midnight oil to get that car ready just to race.

“It took a lot just the car to the track (Saturday),” Steenbergen said.

His competitors wish he didn’t.

Heading into the five-division double header July 26-27 at Beaver Dam, Steenbergen leads Brandon Schmitt by 50 points. Aaron Muhle is third, 59 points back, and Travis Kleindl and Bishofberger are 61 points back.

Steenbergen is back in the division after he blew the motor to his modified toward the end of the season. Call it a blessing in disguise.