Dillon Steuer Returns to Zubi Racing and Gains New Teammate in 2021

Dillon Steuer enters his 5^th year of modified racing coming off a 2020 season were he got his first big block modified win and his first year behind the wheel of the Zubi Racing 17Z entry.  The 18 year old will again be behind the wheel of the 17Z of Dave Zubikowski for the 2021 season complete with a new Zubi Racing teammate Jeff Strunk in the 88Z.

Dillon comes from a family history of racing on asphalt out on the end of Long Island, NY at Riverhead Raceway.  His father Chuck Dillon raced from the 1990’s to 2015 and won two points championships at Riverhead.  Chuck made the switch to dirt and moved to sportsman racing at Orange County Fairgrounds for his final 3 years of racing until he retired and turned the driving over to Dillon in 2016.

Dillon grew up at the Riverhead watching his dad and helping in the shop during the week.  He started racing at age ten and went right into the All-star Slingshot Tour.   Dillon recalled “I learned a lot running the sling shot because we ran a different track every week – Linda’s, Path Valley, Kutztown, Hamlin, Bridgeport and others.  I won two times when the slingshot tour visited Grandview.  I also learned to get use to spending a lot of time traveling to the tracks.  With no dirt tracks in the Long Island area; we always had long rides and it’s something that hasn’t really changed for our dirt racing to this day.”

 “In 2016 my dad conceded the asphalt modified crate seat to me and retired from racing to concentrate on supporting my racing.  I got off to a great start in my crate dirt debut at Orange County Fairgrounds Speedway with a win on opening night of the 2016 season.  We continued to run asphalt crates at Riverhead Raceway when they opened up later in the season and won 3 out of 9 crate races in 2016” Dillon recalled.

Dillon moved to asphalt modified during the 2017 season and occasional ran small block and big block dirt modified when his schedule permitted.  “My first modified win was on asphalt at Riverhead and it was a 300 lap and $7,000 to win race so that was a big one.  We were running in the top 8 at the Eastern States in the small block that year but ran out of gas with a few laps to go” Dillon recalled.

In 2018 and 2019 Dillon made a complete migration to racing small block modifieds at Lebanon Valley Speedway.  Dillon noted “Despite the additional travel to Lebanon Valley I started to realize that I liked dirt racing more than asphalt racing and that it was more fun, more driver dependent, challenging and actually had lower costs than asphalt racing.  We got our first win small block win at Lebanon Valley in 2019 and also won the Turkey Derby at Wall Stadium that year in the dirt car division on the asphalt track.”

In 2020 Dillon won his first big block modified feature race at OCFS while also racing the 17Z Zubi Racing small block at OCFS until they closed due to New York state regulations for Covid-19.  Zubi Racing then turned their sites a bite south to New Jersey and Pennsylvania race tracks were Dillon remained the driver of the 17Z.   Dillon recalled “I went to Grandview and Big Diamond late in the season with the Zubi Racing 17Z to get some track time and prepare for their big races the “Freedom 76” and “Coalcracker”.  Coming in later in the season at both tracks we were handicapping to the back of the field for the first three weeks but made consistent +10 runs from the back or better until the handicap improved.  We got a second place at a weekly race at Grandview and 7^th at the Coalcracker. “

Another first in 2020 for Dillon was his participation in his first match race at the Danny Serrano Memorial at Bridgeport where he was able to win 10 out of 11 match races against the likes of Howard, Strunk, Bouc, Watt, Horton, Krachun, Watson and others.  Dillon recalled “The match races were a lot of fun and just an honor to participate with the best in the business.  I had lane choice each time and took the outside on everyone and was able to cross over for the win 10 times.  On the final with Mahaney; he got a bit of a jump on me at the start but the real deciding factor was the car started to sputter on the banking in the turns as we were running low on fuel and it sloshed around on the banking.”

Dillon noted “For 2021 I’m privileged to be back in the Zubi Racing 17Z with Jeff Strunk as a teammate in the Zubi Racing 88Z.  It was a dream come true this season to race against guys that I have watched and idolized for years like Strunk, Howard and Von Dohren and now to be teammates with one of them is just hard to believe.  To be teammates with Jeff Strunk is so cool and I could never have imaged this would happen.” 

“We hope to start the season at the Super Dirt Car season opener at Volusia in Florida but not 100 % sure yet.  We have a very ambitious weekly and special event season planned with racing the 17Z Bicknell big block on Thursday at OCFS; one of the 17Z small block entries on Fridays at Big Diamond and our second 17Z small block entry on Saturdays at Bridgeport Motorsports Park.  Additionally we would like to run a bunch of the Thunder on the Hill series races at Grandview as well as the mid-week specials at Bridgeport and any other specials we can get to.”

Dillon stated “My goals for 2021 is to get a bunch of wins with at least one win at OCFS, Big Diamond, Grandview and Bridgeport during the season.”  With a good start in the 17Z already during the 2020 season and the addition of a veteran teammate like Jeff Strunk; it looks like the 18 year old is in a good position to pursue his 2021 goals and beyond.