Racing returns to Desoto Speedway for first time since Dave Steele’s death at track

Seth Adams and Michael Cherry crossed the finish line 1-2 in the Legends Class race, part of Desoto Speedway’s Triple Crown event Saturday night.

As they made a victory lap in their matching No. 5 cars, they paused in Turn 2 where the skid marks from last week’s tragic accident were still visible. A fresh coat of paint on the wall masked another reminder of the wreck that killed Dave Steele.

Adams and Cherry pulled up against the wall, the right side of the cars hugging the place where Steele died.

“We’re all family at the race track, so I consider him family,” Adams said after the race. “The main person tonight is Dave Steele.”

Seven days earlier, Desoto Speedway was the site of an accident that shook the racing world. On March 25, Steele bumped up against the back tire of a driver in front of him and his sprint car spun out of control. The lightweight frame of the sprint car makes it one of the deadliest race cars, and once Steele lost control he became the car’s latest victim. Steele slammed headfirst into the wall and was pronounced dead at the track. He was 42.

Racing returned to Manatee County on Saturday, hours after Steele was buried in Tampa. Some people came straight to the track from Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, where Steele’s funeral was held. Others got their chance to remember a Florida racing legend at the track.

The speedway had donation bins set up in at least three locations around the track. A pre-race prayer and moment of silence honored the driver nicknamed “Superman,” and a helmet pass at intermission collected $1,060 for Steele’s family. The speedway plans to present the family with a check for all donations at the Benefit for David Steele on April 30 in Land O’ Lakes.

“We’re going to try to raise as much money for the Steele family as we can during the next month,” track announcer Jake Wilson repeated throughout the night.

Before each driver left the pits for their races Saturday, an official handed him or her a sticker with a Superman logo and the No. 33 the Tampa native had painted on the sprint car he crashed at Desoto Speedway. Particularly in Florida, the racing community has remembered him as one of the best to ever drive.

Steele racked up wins in the United States Auto Club (USAC) — 26 in sprint car racing, 18 in midget car racing and 16 on the USAC Silver Crown Series to make him USAC’s 14th winningest driver.

“He was the best. Nobody in this area could beat him,” said Terry Carnes, a fan from Parrish who had watched Steele race for five years and was at the track on the night of Steele’s death. “He’d run a lot of tracks and everywhere he went he was top.”

For most of Steele’s career, Desoto Speedway served as his home track with no short track up in Tampa for him to run his sprint car on. His career took him far beyond the bounds of the Gulf Coast — he made brief stints in NASCAR and the IndyCar Series — but he always returned to his roots on the short tracks of Florida. Last week’s race was part of the Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series, which will make its next stops in Inverness, Clearwater and New Smyrna Beach before returning to Bradenton on May 20.

The deep roots in the area for a driver with the ability to compete at the sport’s highest level made him something of a mentor and role model to drivers coming up in a state with a relatively small racing community in comparison to some of the United States’ hotbeds.

“Every time I came out here I’d go out on the grandstand side if I’m not racing,” said Bobby Huffstutler, a Bradenton native who drove a street stock at Desoto on Saturday. “I always picked him because he’d always win.”

The accident won’t deter drivers at Desoto Speedway. Even after a difficult week, the racers took Saturday as a chance to honor Steele rather than accept the sort of fear that can hamper a driver on the track.

Everyone who drives knows the dangers of their sport and a death, no matter how close to home it hits, doesn’t change their outlook.

“It happens out on (U.S. Route) 41 and (Interstate) 75, and everywhere else,” said Mark Peterson, a sportsman 50 driver from Sarasota. “It doesn’t even go in your mind. Maybe it’s not the safest thing to do.

“It’s certainly not going to deter me, but of course my family members have brought that out. They probably would think otherwise, but I tell them you being in a car accident just driving to the track is probably greater.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2017 at 9:58 PM with the headline "Racing returns to Desoto Speedway for first time since Dave Steele’s death at track."