Steve Medinger, the 42 year old owner of Hendry County Speedway, died Saturday night September 18 at the track.
Medinger, while racing in the street stock class 20 lap feature, appeared to go into turn three with the throttle wide open, hit the wall between turns three and four with the right front bumper of his race car.
According to the Hendry County Speedway flagman Don VanAcker, “the motor never changed sound to me and he drove straight on into the wall.” The EMTs, according to VanAcker arrived at the car within a few seconds and found Medinger unconscious, with a faint pulse.
County rescue staff was called to the track and the driver was subsequently transported by ambulance to a local area hospital where he was pronouced dead. An autopsy is expected to be done today or Monday to determine exact cause of death.
Medinger, a Naples Florida resident, had taken over the speedway this year and was working hard to get the facility built up. “The man worked from sunup to sundown, and then come out there and worked on that race track”, Vanacker stated.
Hendry County Speedway is located in Clewiston, Florida, at the southern tip of Lake Okeechobee and normally runs on Saturday night.
I knew Steve for a lot of years and if you didn’t know him you missed out. I was out of the country when Steve Died and didn’t find out what happened until almost six months later. I figured we were just playing phone tag and having been out of touch for months in the past was not unusual given his work obsession and my strange occupation in professional motorsports.
So you know what kind of man Steve was, I sent him several thousand dollars in cash to hold while I was overseas. When I finally returned he had needed the money to do a land deal but passed up on it because it was my cash, not his, and he couldn’t reach me for “permission” to borrow it. He didn’t need my permission anyway but that was Steve Medinger.
What ever Sugerland becomes it will always be Steve’s dream to make it better and he would have done so even if he had to do it alone. The picture is of Steve and our friend Truman one of the few times he ever held still enough not to blur the image. Taken late May of 02 just before I left for Le Mans. RIP Steve, it is true only the good die young.
Without a doubt Mr. Huffer, only the good die young.
My time with Steve was short lived but he will always be one of my best friends. We would stand out there in the pits, slap mosquitos and drink a cold pepsi after the races until two, three and four on a Sunday mourning discussing the nights events or talking about what he wanted to do with the track. His dreams were big and small, but he always had a hand shake or a hug for me when we would finely call it a night.
My fondest memory was the night he let promote have a fifty lap race for the bomber division. We only had fourteen cars show up for the main event. I thought we lost money.
After everyone had left for the night, I walked up to him and appologized for a “not so good of a turn out”. He smiled and said “Damn man, if you ever want to promote another race like that, don’t hesitate. We sold seven hundred cheesburgers. We made money!!” Then he gave me a very appreciative hug. That one night will forever be the best night I have ever felt appreciated by a true friend.
Thank you Steve. I’ll see you soon.
p.s. I still have the headers on my truck that he had on his race car the night he left us.
DNSNO, did you ever eat with steve? If you did then the reference to ketchup will make you smile for sure. More than once at the ridge port pub in naples and a few other places around race tracks I had to fight Steve for the Ketchup because the man could wipe out a tables worth of Heinz in lap record time. His fridge was a one beer and four bottles of ketchup lesson in how not to eat. Would give one of my, no, both of my national championships for another steak under the Tiki hut we build out in his back yard. Not long ago I was in Lost Nation Iowa not far from Steves home town so went up the road to see where he came from. Told me all I needed to know about why he was who he was. Crusin that big red ST1100 south into Davenport I had a lot on my mind for sure. Steve’s mom had passed away so I didn’t bother anyone with my visit. Dont worry about the headers, he put them right where he thought they belonged.
We had a staff meeting at a local eatery in Clewiston one evening. After we had all decided on pizza to be our meal, I had noticed Steve eyeing one of the pies. I also noticed he kept hold of a bottle of ketchup while everyone had thier say-so. When we finely decided to finish the meeting with our choice of pizza pie’s, Steve would squirt a blob of the tomato mix on a slice and enjoy it. He just about went through a half a bottle of the stuff before he finished almost half a pie by himself. He truely enjoyed it.
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