With more experience under his belt, Kyle Steckly one-upped his rookie season by claiming the 2023 APC United Late Model Series championship.
Steckly started the year with a new McColl Racing Enterprises chassis and a 12th-place finish at Sunset Speedway, before a runner-up at Flamboro Speedway and a win at Peterborough Speedway. His third-career APC Series victory was also his first at a track other than Flamboro.
“I travelled a lot last year, which was new to me because I normally stuck with one track and just ran home tracks,” said Steckly. “Last year, I learned a lot, going to Sunset for the first time, Peterborough for the first time, Sauble for the first time, and it just made me a much better driver.”
After a fourth-place at Delaware Speedway, the series returned to Flamboro. Steckly was running towards the front on a late restart when he got collected in a wreck, where Junior Farrelly’s car ended up on his roof. The damage to his No. 22 was mainly cosmetic, but it was the damage in the standings that created concern.
“I wasn’t too happy running in fourth that day and, once we got in the wreck, the points situation didn’t look that good,” said Steckly. “Me and the crew went back to the shop, we got everything fixed up. The week before the Sauble race, we went to Flamboro for the Gold Rush and we won that, then we went to Sauble and won that.”
Rebounding from the DNF to win at Sauble Speedway put the Milverton, ON driver on a bit of a roll, finishing third in the following races, at Sunset and Sauble. The consistent results gave Steckly the championship lead entering the finale.
“Going into that last race, at Delaware, with only a five-point lead was definitely nerve wracking, knowing how good all the guys around me in points were there,” said Steckly. “I didn’t have to win the race, I just had to be smart and be there at the end.”
Steckly entered last year’s finale trailing J.R. Fitzpatrick by 20 points. It could’ve been closer, but a penalty in the penultimate race sent him to the back; he finished behind Fitzpatrick in that race and ended the year runner-up in points.
Learning from that experience, Steckly focused on ‘being smart’ throughout the season. His team’s pit strategy cycled him further back in the second half at Delaware, with challenger Jo Lawrence moving ahead. As the laps wound down, Steckly slowly worked his way through the field, keeping Lawrence in his windshield.
“We just did what we had to,” said Steckly. “We got back up there and, once we were in a safe spot, I just didn’t want to risk anything and we just saved our stuff and made sure nothing stupid happened.”
Clinched with 5th-place at Delaware
Steckly finished fifth to clinch the APC Series championship, where the hard work of his crew stood out to him the most from this season. He says the 22 Racing team went to work after the Flamboro wreck, with a couple of changes that made the car lights out; he says that the crew never gives up and it pays off at the end.
Working on the car has not been limited to just the crew. Steckly has been around the shop for as long as he can remember, with the importance of turning wrenches being emphasized to Kyle by his dad, four-time NASCAR Pinty’s Series (NPS) champion Scott Steckly.
“Ever since I was young, racing go karts, we weren’t going racing unless I was in the shop, working on the car,” said Steckly. “I definitely am appreciative of that because it’s paid off in the end. When you respect your equipment and you understand how much work and how much effort these guys put in to make it possible, it makes you respect whatever it does a lot more.”
Steckly has also served as crew chief in NPS, where he became the youngest crew chief to win a series race, with Ken Schrader at Ohsweken Speedway. He says that he enjoys working on the car almost as much as driving it, something that’s becoming beneficial.
“I think the more you know about the car and how it works, and the engineering side of it, it definitely helps you inside the car,” said Steckly. “You can say ‘I made an adjustment here and it helped,’ you know what it did. At the end of the day, I think the more the driver knows about the car and the adjustments to make, the better driver he is going to be.”
The APC Series championship makes 22 Racing the first team to win both NPS and APC titles. Team owner Scott says that he was nervous during the final race, with his son chasing the goal of winning the series’ top prize.
“All the cars are so close together and anything can happen, but Kyle does a great job behind the wheel, he’s an amazing driver and very patient and usually doesn’t get himself into trouble,” said Scott. “It all turned out great…it’s pretty amazing. He worked very hard at it to make it happen and I’m very proud of him.”
Kyle will return to the APC Series full-time in 2024, while also running the full ASA STARS National Tour south of the border. With a busy season of super and pro late model action ahead, Steckly’s ultimate goal remains stock car racing’s highest level.
“I think that’s every kid’s dream, to race on Sundays in the Cup Series,” concluded Steckly. “I’m going to do everything to make that happen, but for right now, we’re just taking it one race at a time, one weekend at a time, and having fun doing what we’re doing.”
