Birthplace: Johannesburg, South Africa
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, FL
Occupation: Self Employed
Sponsors: Mazda, Adept Studios, OPM Autosports, Rossini Racing, Traqmate Data Systems, G-Loc Brakes
Danny got into motocross at the age of 21, and made up for his lack of experience with enthusiasm and a fearless attitude, and embraced the theory that if you're not crashing, you're not going fast enough, and you will never find your limits. One race announcer commentated at the 1982 Kings Park Supercross event ... "there goes Danny Steyn. He's really fast between crashes!" But it paid off and soon Danny was winning championships and picking up sponsors
At the peak of his Motocross career, Danny was part of the wonderfully talented Blue Stratos Kawasaki Team that was the dominant force in motocross in South Africa in the 1980's. This team produced some well respected champions including Greg Albertyn (World Motocross Champion in 1992, '93 and '94, AMA Champion '99), Colin Dugmore and Robbie Herring (Multiple UK Champion and manager of the UK Motocross Des Nations Team).
In 1983 Danny won his State Motocross Championship with 13 wins in 14 races. Danny also competed in the famous Roof of Africa 3-Day Rally in 1984 and 1985, and raced Enduros, Off Road races and Hare Scrambles.
Unfortunately a really bad motocross accident in a race at Eshowe, Kwazulu in 1987 hospitalized Danny. During surgery he lapsed into a coma, and was in intensive care for over a week. Despite being administered his last rites, he made a full recovery, and went back racing 6-months later.
Unfortunately he never got back to full speed and retired from motocross later that year.
After retiring from motocross in 1988, Danny then took up competitive windsurfing and won the South African Championship in 1992. In 1993 Danny emigrated to the USA, and became a US citizen in 2004.
In 2005, seventeen years after retiring from motocross, Danny attended an AMG Driving Academy at Homestead Raceway and his instructors Jeff Andretti and Linda Pobst recognized he had some talent and encouraged him to see what he could do in motor sport.
Danny attended several more AMG Challenges and was presented the prestigious AMG IWC Ingenieure watch for fastest autocross time at Homestead in November 2006 by Tommy Kendall.
With this success, in 2006 Danny signed up for the Panoz Driving School and went on to run two race series with Panoz, culminating in a 3rd Place in the Final Series in 2007. This coincided with 3rd place finish in the Final Panoz race at the 2007 Petite LeMans Road Atlanta.
In 2007 Danny rented a Spec Miata from Tom Fowler at OPM Autosports and tried his hand at two SCCA events. He was immediately hooked and commissioned OPM Autosports to build him his own Spec Miata for the 2008 season.
Since then, Danny has raced and won more than ten Spec Miata championships in SCCA and NASA events across the country. He has also competed in World Challenge and Battery Tender MX-5 Cup events
Danny races under the OPM tent with Tom Fowler as crew chief. His engines are built by good friend Mike Rossini, and he has support from several other sponsors listed on this site.
