Roy Steffey *
Roy Steffey started drag racing in a 1947 Dodge on the back roads of New Baltimore in the early 1950’s. In 1957, when the New Baltimore Drag strip opened Roy and his friend Jim Marsh took turns racing a 1956 Chevy convertible. The two entered every class they could just to get more time racing. By 1958 the two purchased a B/Dragster and took turns driving the car. Soon they started to build a twin engine car in Roy’s father’s shop. They traded the B/Dragster chassis to Bob Gillian, owner of Moldex Crankshaft Company, for the first 3 ¾” un-welded Chevy crankshaft creating an unheard of 389 cubic inch Chevy. The twin-engine car had one injected and one supercharged engine, but it did not work out as planned. A new Logghe chassis was built using the supercharged 389 engine on gas.
At this time Roy began to concentrate on engine building and Jim more on the driving, but a blower explosion soon sidelined their efforts. A friend of theirs Connie Kalitta loaned them a set of Nitro injectors and soon they were back to racing again. This proved to be a winning combination for the Top Eliminator class. In late 1962 Roy and Jim teamed up with the Logghe Brothers to form the Logghe, Marsh & Steffey team. Using a state of the art lightweight chassis and a large cubic inch Chevy on a full load of Nitro, this team was able to beat the best of the AA fuelers. In 1964, with Roy as the engine builder and tuner, the unblown Chevy cracked the seven second mark!
Seeing the changes in tire technology coming, a new car was built for the 1965 season. From the success with the Chevy, the team made a change to a supercharged Chrysler. Jim Marsh left the team and Maynard Rupp was put in place as the driver. To meet a number of match races, the car was built for either a Chevy or Chrysler engine. Soon the Chrysler became the standard motor and Roy and Maynard started Rupp Steffey Enterprise (RSE) driving for the Logghe Stamping Company. 1965 proved to be a winning year giving Roy the NHRA Mechanic of the Year award and Maynard winning the first points Championship. In 1966 Roy bought out Maynard and changed the name of RSE to Roy Steffey Enterprise. Roy was soon approached by Lincoln Mercury to campaign a new Mercury Comet funny car with Eddie Schartman as the driver. The car was a new flip top funny car with an injected Ford Cammer. The car was much faster than the other funny cars due to Roy’s expert engine building and tuning and was a proven winner.
In 1967 Roy teamed up with STP and Car Craft magazine, with Maynard Rupp to drive a new Mercury Cougar funny car. The Cougar was a media success! In 1968 Roy began to concentrate more on his business, building engines and racecars for other teams. Soon he found himself working for Connie Kalitta on Shirley Muldowney’s car. At the end of the 1969 season Roy left drag racing and opened a garage in New Baltimore. Later he sold the garage to pursue a career as an Engineer at TDM where he retired in 2005.
Over the course of his career Roy built numerous custom cars, dragsters, funny cars, and streamliners. But his talents didn’t stop there as he also built a motorcycle for racing at Bonneville and other special projects such as a racing boat!
Today Roy enjoys traveling the country attending racing and drag racing events and documenting it all with pictures. He lives with his wife Sharon in New Baltimore, Michigan. (Roy Passed away on 2017)
