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A quick study

2003: No car, no cred, no experience in Pure Stocks racing. 2007: No worries at all. He's a regular on the leaderboard.

By MIKE CAMUNAS, Times Correspondent
Published October 9, 2007

With just three seasons under his belt, Steve Stinedurf is ranked second in points in the Pure Stock races at Citrus County Speedway. (He even finished first one season.) His competitors are impressed by his quick success.
	[Maurice Rivenbark | Times]

BROOKSVILLE

During a routine race, spectator Steve Stinedurf had a routine thought. Then he said it out loud.

"I'm going to buy me a car," he remembers saying to his friends in attendance. They responded with smirks and chuckles. Everyone says that while watching a race, Stinedurf was told.

But Stinedurf did it. He spent barely $200 on a car that already had a roll cage. He worked on it, and those guys he was with finally started taking him seriously.

Four years and three racing seasons later, Stinedurf has finished no lower than second in the points standing in the Pure Stock races at Citrus County Speedway. The Brooksville resident even finished first in his second season.

"A lot of those guys just know how to set up the geometry of a car better than I do," Stinedurf said. "My first two years, I really didn't know that much at all. It was just trying what people said at the track."

Now with help from his friend Dave Veltman, Stinedurf is getting even better. So much so that after Saturday's race, he was just 127 points behind the leader, Bill Ryan.

Ryan isn't too worried about Stinedurf catching him with four races left, but has been impressed with his quick success.

"I'm not saying he couldn't catch me with the races we have left," Ryan said. "Anything's possible, but he'll be up at the top with me, that's for sure."

Stinedurf said that "on a scale from one to 10, Ryan is about a nine," adding that, "I'm probably a seven."

But that hasn't diminished his persona at the track.

That's because, Veltman said, Stinedurf is "the most laid-back guy," even after the time he lent Veltman his backup car and Veltman got it to run faster than Stinedurf's primary car. He got a little friendly ragging for it, but Stinedurf is known as a clean driver, one who doesn't push or shove the other cars on the track.

"You don't have to worry about him, and you can get up side-by-side with him and race him clean," Ryan said. "That's rare."

But Veltman knows Stinedurf's dedication.

"He's been doing everything himself up to this point," Veltman said. "He's self-teaching himself, and he's also self-admitted that he reached his limit. I'm trying to point him in the right direction, and he listens, something a lot of guys I've tried to teach don't do."

Stinedurf said he's far from being a professional racer, that he just takes part in an expensive hobby. When he comes home from work, he usually ends up spending an hour or two on his car.

Stinedurf added that it's consistency - and the years of experience Ryan has over him - that has Ryan "100 points ahead, and it shows." But Stinedurf still will make a push for the top of the leaderboard, despite his friendliness.

"There is a chance for me to catch him," Stinedurf said. "He's a good driver that knows how to set up a car, but it's not really a rivalry - we're friends off the track. But once on the track, you do what you got to do to win."

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FAST FACTS

Steve Stinedurf

Age: 46

Hometown: St. Petersburg

Resides: Brooksville

Nickname: Ox Man

Occupation: Tree trimmer

Racing number: 0

Color: Black, silver, red

Timber!: Stinedurf missed most of his third season because of a broken leg. While on the job, a tree he was cutting fell on him and broke his leg. However, he's never been hurt or in a serious crash while racing.

Did you know?: Pure stock races are intended to provide a low-cost, entry-level class for racing. These cars are to be strictly stock parts, with minimal (if any) modifications to the vehicle. Essentially, the racers will say, these are cars that you race, not race cars. According to the rules at Citrus County Speedway, a car must be complete stock body for year, make and model, must have a roll cage, must have exterior trim removed and must have no mirrors, which requires drivers to feel out other cars but also makes for lots of rubbing and small collisions into the track wall.

[Last modified October 8, 2007, 20:28:23]