James got the racing bug like many of us by attending races as a young lad. Around 1970 and living in Williamson and Sodus NY, his family attended Spencer Speedway every Friday and Fulton on Sunday nights (back when Fulton was an asphalt track). Additionally, friends of the family were in to drag racing, Rick Johnstone with a Gremlin and Craig Himes with a Nova. They ran at Spencer on Saturday nights. Jimmy's dad (Jim) and uncle (Dave) got the bug to go racing in 1973 and chose the oval tracks over the drags.

Jim's dad drove the #77, a '66 Impala and his uncle had the #66, a '69 Impala. They were true "shade tree mechanics" working on their Street Stocks in the driveway during the week and racing Friday at Spencer and Sunday at Fulton with an occasional trip to Lancaster on Saturday. Racing was a passion but family was also a priority and Jimmy's dad promised to stop driving once a victory was achieved. That victory came at Fulton around 1976 and the family returned to being fans in the stands.

Jim Steingraber - Fulton

Several years later, James would get more involved in racing through a good friend and future racer, Dean DeMarree. Dean had been a crew member on the Danny Mason #04 Late Model at Spencer and Holland Speedway. In 2000 Dean was racing a Street Stock at Spencer and Jim asked to start helping and learning. It was a fun time working with long time friends Pat Codwise and Brian Leimberger, resulting in the Spencer Street Stock Championship for Dean. In 2001 Dean drove a modified part of the year as well as the street stock, unfortunately, surgery stopped Jimmy's crew activities for the next few years.

During Jim's forced "fan" role, he stayed in touch with a few of the area racers. In the fall of 2006 Terry Cheetham informed Jimmy that his team would be expanding in 2007 and we would welcome his help. Working closely with Terry and Doug, Jim became part of our weekly maintenance team and a key player on race days. James has enjoyed learning more about the modifieds we race and in 2008 continued to expand his role on the team. We love his energy and spirit and it's reassuring to know he is someone we can count on. We asked Jimmy on several nights to also help with our affiliated teams and he always tackled the challenges with gusto.

We gave our friend who is also known as "Steimy" a new knick name in 2008 – "Pit Boss". Jimmy really is a jack of all trades and is always looking to learn more. He's a take charge guy and is the first person you'll see with a wrench in his hand. 2008 was a great step forward for our team and the 5 cars we were involved in. There was no way we could have even thought of tackling so much without him.

James is especially grateful to his "Lady" Veronica LaFave who not only allowed him to give so much time to his passion, but in 2008 became an additional hand in the pits. When you can be involved in such a fun sport and share it with those who are closest to us, life really doesn't get much better.

Jim said "I hope to enjoy many years with all these good people." Jimmy, we do to.