'It's a complete addiction': Inside the racing lifestyle at Deer Creek Speedway
Aug. 20—SPRING VALLEY — If you've been to Deer Creek Speedway before, you know the smell.
A combination of car exhaust and dirt in the air, with a hint of gasoline and rubber from the sun beating down on tires all day.
A glance around the pits shows that everyone is in a pair of tennis shoes they probably should've thrown out years ago, or a pair of worn boots, as they march around holding car parts or containers.
Early in the day, everyone is optimistic about their chances of reaching victory lane by the end of the night.
Conditions were perfect for race day at Deer Creek on Aug. 14, with points races taking place at the high-banked, 3/8-mile, four-lane dirt track.
The Post Bulletin shadowed three race teams last Saturday as they went about what they consider a routine race day.
Each team had a different story and came from different backgrounds, but they all share the same reason to be at Deer Creek: They're addicted to the sport.
"Everyone's got their thing," Kasson race car driver Billy Steinberg said. "You got people who like to travel. You got people who play sports. You got people who like to go and drink at bars. But this is our niche."
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3 p.m.
Only the legs of Charlie Steinberg were visible when walking up to his trailer.
His dad, William, was working on the front of the car while Charlie was underneath his No. 24 USRA Modified car changing out parts.
Both of Charlie's arms were nearly black from his tinkering with the car. In his hand was a wrench, something Charlie said has been there since "coming out of the womb."
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"It's the only 20 minutes that the rest of the world doesn't matter." — Billy Steinberg, Kasson
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The Kasson native got his start in racing when he was four years old, racing Go-Karts in Wisconsin after he got his first one on Christmas Day.
By the time he turned nine, Charlie already had his first dirt car and raced for his first time at 11.
Now the sport has consumed him.
"I'll be honest, it's a complete addiction," Charlie said. "This isn't a passion. This is a complete lifestyle... It's tough to be in a sport like this because it's very physically and emotionally — and by far financially — demanding."
"This is a sport where you can't just be half in. It's either you're all in or you're not," he said. "You have a lot of older gentlemen that just load the car up and race up on the back and have their fun, and there's nothing wrong with that. But if you want to be competitive, it is 24/7 and your mind's got to be wrapped around it all day."
Listen: Charlie on racing at Deer Creek
As Charlie continued describing his addiction, his 28-year-old brother Billy walked up to let him know to grab a ticket for his meal later on in the day.
Billy then turned and started working on his No. 83s Wissota Midwest Modified car that rested side-by-side with Charlie's.
For Billy, he started racing Go-Karts when he was eight and started racing a Street Stock when he was 12. By 14, he was in his first B-mod.
When he first started out, it was going fast that initially hooked him. But as he continued racing, it became more.
"It's the only 20 minutes that the rest of the world doesn't matter," Billy said. "Politics, relationship problems, financial problems, whatever's bothering you and your normal day-to-day basis, it doesn't matter."
By 3:50 p.m., both brothers are back piecing together their cars before hot laps begin at 5:30.
Charlie told a story about how when he was 11, an old racer came to his car after a race angry and wanting to confront him. When Charlie took off his helmet, the man was shocked to see he was just a kid and walked away.
He then pointed across the field at two other trailers in the pits. One was the trailer of 82-year-old Super Stock racer Harland Morehart and the other was the trailer of 18-year-old USRA B-Modified racer Jim Chisholm, the defending national champion.
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4 p.m.
At 18 years old, Jim Chisholm has a trophy rack many spend their entire careers hoping they can come close to.
The Osage, Iowa, racer is the hottest name in racing around Deer Creek, being a two-time "King of the Creek" champion, the award presented to the driver who has the highest points total between all racing divisions, and is the reigning USRA B-Mod national champion.
At Deer Creek alone, he had won eight of the 11 feature races this season, going into last Saturday's action, and has finished in the top five in all 11. He's in love with the sport, but also loves the community, which is why he was nowhere to be found by his trailer at the time.
"He's out helping someone with their car," Monte Chisholm, Jim's father, said.
Monte and his wife Lezlie relaxed on the back of a trailer while someone fetched Jim. His parents, in the meantime, described how neither one of them had any prior experience in racing before Jim and his brother, 15-year-old Joe, started racing. It was actually the kids' uncle who got them started, racing slingshot cars at first.
A few minutes later, Jim arrived in a golf cart.
Jim said he was six years old when he started racing slingshots on the smaller track at Deer Creek. In 2016, he made the jump to a B-mod and he hasn't missed a points race at the track since.
"We love this place. The atmosphere around here is great," Jim said.
When he first got into that car five years ago, it was nerve-wracking, he said. Here he was, barely with his driver's license, racing against people who've been out at the track since it opened in 1996.
"It was also very intimidating," he added. "But you got to remember, everyone weighs the same amount inside the race car, everyone's got the same size, all that. So that age and size, that all goes out the window."
The young racer is as humble as they come, though. Ask him about his accolades and he doesn't hesitate to credit those who've mentored him to this point, and his family, who've fully dove into the lifestyle and become him and his brother's pit crew.
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"I'll race till I drop." — Harland Morehart, Rochester
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Jim currently sits on top of the points standings in his division at Deer Creek, with Joe not far behind at No. 2.
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4:30 p.m.
The packed pits at Deer Creek are a mix of everything from luxurious RVs and high-priced haulers to beat-up pick-up trucks with hitched trailers. No vehicle is out of place here, though.
Racers who have already staked their parking spot are fully invested in prepping their cars for hot laps, which are about an hour away. Throughout the pits, all you can hear are motors being tested, lug nuts getting screwed into cars and the sounds of socket wrenches doing what they do best.
Listen: Sounds in the pits
But 87-year-old Harland Morehart is taking his time with his Wissota Super Stock. The Eyota native doesn't move around quite as he used to on Saturdays at Deer Creek, but he's made sure to be there since the track opened in 1996.
He raced on opening day and doesn't plan to stop any time soon.
"I haven't missed a weekend yet," he said. "It's been my favorite track."
Morehart's racing career began in 1957 in North Dakota and he claims to own 26 race cars.
"There's no way," Charlie Steinberg said later on. "He's got to own more than 26."
Morehart, who's referred to as a "legend" by Charlie, raced A-Mods and B-Mods throughout his career before he made another switch to a Super Stock.
"I got a picture with Charlie when he was 10," Morehart said.
He said it's the first time this season he's raced the slick red No. 17 Super Stock he was leaning up against.
While racing is an addiction for Charlie, it's a "sickness" for Morehart.
"I'll race till I drop," he said.
Listen: Harland Morehart on his start in racing
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5:30 p.m.
The speaker systems in the pits are getting their money's worth right about now, announcing the times for the different divisions to get staged for hot laps. Hot laps are when the drivers get to freely test out the track before the heat races begin.
Looking around the pits, several people are walking around with red gas containers in their hands as they put the finishing touches on the cars before they hit the track for the first time.
In a single-file line, cars made their way onto the track where the dirt started flying.
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5:45 p.m.
After hot laps concluded, five cars cruised onto the track, including the Steinberg brothers.
Each driver held an American flag in their left hand and continued to do so as they slowly drove the half-circle around the track and parked in front of the stands.
The drivers weren't chosen at random and the moment wasn't routine for Deer Creek. It was Veteran's Night.
On that night, the track and Rochester Chevrolet sponsored a fundraiser to raise money for the Disabled American Veterans organization Mayo Southeast Chapter 28. The five drivers out on the track each were either active military members, veterans or have family members who have or are currently serving.
Billy and Charlie both currently serve in the Minnesota National Guard and didn't race the entirety of last season due to being deployed in Iraq.
Both perform maintenance on UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and Charlie is a crew chief as well.
The Steinberg household was much quieter in the past year as William reminisced on how much he missed the quality time racing with the family.
"I wouldn't trade anything for a weekend racing with my boys," William said.
Each of the five drivers was honored at the start of the ceremony, then took a lap around the track with their flags during the national anthem, all the while fans holding American flags of their own lined the southwest bank of the track.
The moment was emotional for the brothers.
"It was really emotional. A year ago today, he and I were out in Iraq," Billy said. "So it was a little touching."
"It makes you prideful, that's for sure," Charlie said. "When I'm sitting there going through that, all I can think about is how appreciative and how lucky I am to be in this country... It's good to see people come together and just appreciate the American flag for what it stands for."
Deer Creek Marketing director Cole Queensland said at the end of the night that $28,000 had been raised and that total eventually passed $40,000.
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6 p.m.
The pits were the loudest they'd been all day as drivers lined up for the first wave of heat races. More people were speed-walking around the pits carrying gas containers and pit crews made their final adjustments to their cars.
Billy Steinberg's division is the first to hear its name called for staging. He threw his helmet on and slid into the car.
William leaned in to the window to talk to Billy before he took off, and his girlfriend Sami Lombard then leaned in to the window to wish him good luck. Looking down pit row, several spouses and kids were huddled at their driver's windows to do the same before they pulled onto the dirt road and toward the track.
Once the dust settled, William, Charlie and Lombard all hopped on their gator and drove to the track to watch Billy's race.
Across the road, the final adjustments were being made to Morehart's car.
He's been doing this too long to get nervous or excited before a race.
"I'm used to it," he said.
Morehart has a much smaller pit crew compared to the Chisholms and the Steinbergs. He gets help from a few people, including Travis Blanco, who was tightening lug nuts on Morehart's car.
"About done?" Morehart said to him.
"Working on it," Blanco said back with a smirk on his face.
In Blanco's eyes, Morehart is a "walking legend" who'll "race anything with wheels."
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6:24 p.m.
Billy Steinberg pulled into the pits victorious. Before the races, drivers draw at random to see where they start. Billy drew first and held his lead for the full eight laps.
He hopped out of his car and immediately convened with William and Charlie. Billy was informing them the track conditions were extremely dry, about as dry as it would be for the feature races at the end of the night.
With that knowledge in mind, Charlie started making adjustments to his car.
"So now Charlie knows that the track is way slicker than we anticipated," Billy said. "And now, instead of him showing up with his normal heat setup, he might put on a tighter heat setup or he might go full-blown feature setup for his heat race."
This was just one example of how the Steinbergs work as a team on race day. Besides working on each other's cars, they also give information on track conditions so the other can make the proper changes before their race.
"It's one of the advantages of being a two-man team," Billy said.
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6:52 p.m.
Jim Chisholm pulled back into the pits after racing in his heat. He finished fourth in the heat which then earned him the 13th starting spot in the feature race. He knew that he'd have to pass a dozen other drivers to earn another victory. As soon as he pulled in, Monte went to the hood of the car, and Jim soon immediately followed.
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"We weren't born into this. We chose this as our pastime. This is our fishing boat, our snowmobile trips and we feel we made the right choice." — Monte Chisholm
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Both were peering into the engine before removing the hood. It turned out Jim's engine had overheated during the race and a faint amount of smoke was coming from it.
While those two continued to diagnose the situation and tried to cool the engine, Lezlie was underneath them beginning to replace Jim's tires.
Five minutes later Joe pulled into the trailer after finishing third in his heat race. He earned the fifth starting spot in the feature.
Lezlie came over from Jim's car and briefly worked on Joe's, and Monte also came over and briefly looked over the vehicle before returning to Jim's.
The oldest of the siblings, Kelly, 36, got to work on Joe's car as he climbed out the window.
The right side of Joe's car got dinged up during his race and a small portion of it got completely removed.
Crew members got the panel removed from the car and Joe got to work hammering out the dents.
Listen: Joe making car repairs.
The 15-year-old, with a mallet in hand and his knees in the dirt, then started explaining what he needs to be done to the car to those around him.
This is what weekends during race season look like for the Chisholm family since the boys started racing.
A way of life that Monte and Lezlie had no prior experience with was soon fully embraced once they knew how passionate their sons became about it.
"We weren't born into this," Monte said. "We chose this as our pastime. This is our fishing boat, our snowmobile trips and we feel we made the right choice. We're extremely happy with the sport for the kids and a pastime for us."
A few trailers down pit row, Morehart climbed into his car, with a little assistance, to get ready to take off for his heat.
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7:15 p.m.
Morehart pulled into the pits after finishing his heat. He calmly sat in his car as he talked about how he spun out during the race which will have him starting "pretty close to last" in his feature later on.
He added since this is the first time this season he's raced this car he still isn't as familiar with it as he wished he was.
Track conditions became wetter later into the night to compensate for how dry they were earlier on. Morehart said that didn't help his cause either.
Across the road, Charlie Steinberg and his family made last-second adjustments to his car before he hit the track. He then left the pits and the family once again hopped on the gator and headed to the stands.
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7:28 p.m.
Charlie's heat is underway.
In the stands, William videoed the race and Charlie's girlfriend Paris Ingebritson cheered him on.
"GO CHARLIE," she yelled.
Eight laps later Charlie finished sixth in the heat.
"That wasn't what we wanted," William said as he left his seat in the stands.
William and Paris got back on the gator to meet Charlie at their trailer and Billy walked back and broke down what happened in the race.
"That's what we call missing the set-up," Billy said.
He means by that is Charlie "guessed wrong" in the pre-race adjustments he made because his car was "super free" when making its turns. Billy said Charlie's car wanted to drift on the banks, but couldn't because it was too loose and needed to be tightened up even more.
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8:15 p.m.
After a brief intermission that included flags from different military branches being auctioned off for the night's fundraiser, the feature races finally began.
Billy Steinberg was part of the night's first feature, in the Midwest Modified division. Even though he finished first in his heat race, he drew unlucky and started eighth in the feature. Going into it, Billy had made up his mind in the pits that he was to race the bottom side of the track.
With his division being the first feature of the night, he had to make a guess on what the track conditions were after it was tended to during the intermission.
Twenty minutes later, Billy finished sixth in the feature and found out the topside was where the advantage was during the race.
"He said he was going to stick to the bottom, sometimes the plan works," William said as he left the stands once again to meet one of his sons in the pits.
Once back at the trailer, Billy and William met to break it all down. William pulled out the video he took of the race and Billy watched over his shoulder as the two took turns pointing out different observations from the tape.
"At least the car is in one piece," Billy said by the end of the film session.
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9 p.m.
Joe and Jim Chisholm entered the track for the B-mods feature race.
Many eyes in the bleachers were on them as they started four rows apart; Joe got a favorable start at No. 5, while Jim wasn't so lucky at position No. 13.
Both brothers stayed topside for the majority of the race. Joe midway through the 25-lap race looked to be in a position to break into the top three after solidifying his position at fourth a few laps ago.
Jim, meanwhile, was gradually climbing and had broken into the top 10 before a caution flag flew for a spinout.
While Jim continued making up ground after the restart and was sitting at eighth, Joe seemed to lose the momentum he had and dropped a spot back to fifth.
Another caution came and after the restart, Jim and Joe were essentially racing side-by-side against each other the remainder of the race. Joe was battling for fourth with another car while Jim had a firm grip on sixth as dirt from Joe's car kicked in Jim's when they were drifting on the turns.
Joe managed to hold his topside position, which kept Jim at bay.
Going into the final lap, Joe had dropped to fifth but made a slick underneath pass on the first straight-away to finish fourth. Jim finished sixth, his first finish out of the top five at Deer Creek this season.
"It's just what the track gave us tonight," Jim told his dad back down in the pits.
While the Chisholm pit crew got to work packing the cars up for the night, Jim walked over to congratulate the winner a few trailers down.
Joe took a second to break down the race.
"We just kind of started off a little slow but once we got to the middle of the race the car was getting really fast," Joe said. "We didn't really need any of them cautions because I felt like we could have got by some of them, we just got stuck in not my preferred lane."
"Saw Jim a couple times and was like 'this is why we don't need cautions,'" Joe joked.
Joe said it's fun racing against his brother. The two know better than to get too competitive with one another, though. Whoever's the culprit has to fix up the other person's car, Joe said.
For the Chisholm team, it was just another family outing at Deer Creek, and they prepared to do it all over again a night later at a race in Mason City, Iowa.
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9:15 p.m.
Morehart climbed out of this car after finishing last in the super stock feature.
He still had a smile on his face and was just happy to finish the race. He said at this point of his career, he just loves being out there on the track.
"Just loading the car up in one piece is a win," he said.
Morehart's next race is right back at Deer Creek a week later (tonight), to no one's surprise.
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9:30 p.m.
Charlie Steinberg was zipping up his race suit as two little girls ran up to him to give him a fist bump and wish him good luck before the race.
Billy then came over and did the same before making his way over to the stands to watch the feature race.
Charlie wasn't coming into the race with high expectations, however. His sixth-place finish in his heat race had him placed at 17th for the feature. He also said he wasn't sure how the adjustments he made to the car were going to affect it.
"I'm just going to try and get to the top and pass some cars," he said before climbing into the white No. 24 car.
As he was about to pull out of the pits, William and Ingebritson drove up next to the car in the gator. She reached into Charlie's window to grab his hand and wish him good luck before both vehicles went their separate ways.
Ten minutes later the green flag waved.
Charlie got topside but wasn't making any ground as he fell a car back into 18th. With nothing going for him, he called it after 20 laps and pulled into the inner circle of the track and watched the race finish.
At his trailer, Charlie sat on top of a cooler while taking off his gear and shaking his head in disappointment.
"Another terrible night. I haven't figured out if it's me or the car. That's what we call 'going out to lunch,'" Charlie said. "It means the car is so far gone, you're not even competing, you're not even racing anybody. You're just out there. I'm trying everything I can to try and get in front of someone and realize I'm dead last right now so it's best to just pull off. Honestly, it's saving yourself the embarrassment. I'd rather take a DNF (did not finish) than truly finish last.
"It hurts to have nights like this, but it is what it is. You can lay down and cry or you can get back up and try to figure out what went wrong and try to fix it, but right now I'm going to lay down and cry for a bit."
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10:18 p.m.
While some cars are getting loaded up into trailers, others are still out as fans and racers come together to celebrate the night.
Trailer lights are all turned on and the pits are lit up as if there's a second race track there. The coolers are brought out and the sound of tabs opening cans is heard around nearly every trailer.
The night's winners have their trophies on top of their cars and a group of people in a good mood around it, while those who didn't get any hardware are having a much more subtle night at their trailers.
But they all have one thing in common: They're just people talking about their addiction.
