Don Droud, Jr. 'runs' home

http://www.yorknewstimes.com/stories/062807/sports_dondroudjr.shtml

Multi-talented pro driver a former York Duke

By Steve Moseley
Managing Editor

YORK -- It won't be sibling rivalry as some had hoped, but tomorrow night
will still be a homecoming for professional race car driver Don Droud, Jr.,
of Lincoln.

Droud will drive a roaring 360 sprint car at Junction Motor Speedway in
Friday night's Moses Motor Company ASCS Midwest Sprints show at Junction
Motor Speedway.

The card includes the Outlaw Vintage Lites and the Good Old Time Racing
Association, both of which feature throwback machines from racing's
yesteryear, but it won't include another Droud, brother Rodney.

Droud, Jr., said he moved to York the summer of his fifth grade year and
through his graduation was a "proud York Duke." Immediately after graduation
he moved to Lincoln where he continued to scratch the racing bug that bit
him as a York High School junior. What has become an illustrious and wildly
varied racing career began in those prep school days when, "I was racing
stock cars at Midwest Speedway in Lincoln. Then I got into the 410 sprint
cars and then started running some midgets and some non-wing sprint cars"
including those sanctioned by USAC. "Lately I've been doing all that plus
running a late model at I-80 (Speedway at Greenwood) on Sunday nights."

How much of his life is taken up with racing?

"Most of it," he answered with a chuckle, then explained he has a drywall
repair business in Lincoln to fill in the non-racing season of his year.

He said the sprinter he'll be driving tomorrow night belongs to Doug
Lovegrove out of Waverly, "a racer who got hurt last year. I'm just filling
in for him until he gets better."

Droud is running the late model for Ed Kosiski, one of the three legendary
Kosiski brothers who race out of Omaha. They are involved as owners of I-80
Speedway, too.

Droud will run, usually at or near the front, in pretty much anything with a
steering wheel above and a gas pedal below. His favorite class of race cars?

"I like the midgets way better than the sprint cars," he acknowledged, "but
the sprint cars pay better." Midgets, he explained, are "a smaller sprint
car without a wing." They are powered by a four-cylinder motor.

Open wheelers in general and sprint cars specifically, he said, are unique
"for their speed and acceleration. The downforce with the wings (on winged
sprints) really plants the cars so they don't have a lot of wheel spin."

Droud said a properly set up sprint car can run wide open around a fast
track like that at JMS without the driver ever havingto lift the accelerator
except in traffic.

"We're probably running 120 or 130 miles and hour down the backstretch" in
360 sprints like the one he'll be driving Friday at McCool. "When the car is
right and on a good track you can run around there wide open for 25 laps."

What kind of car can accomplish such a feat? Fans, friends and those who are
just curious can get an up-close look at the machine and meet Droud Friday
afternoon at Moses Ford south of York. Steve Moses said all are invited to
come give the car a thorough once over and say hello to Droud ... whether to
catch up on old times with a former York resident or to get an autograph.

While his return to York is all business, Droud said it will certainly be
"good to see people I haven't seen in a while. I would really like people to
come over to the pits after the races from the grandstands. I'd like to see
people who knew me or that I knew in high school. It's just really good to
race close to home."

He likes Junction Motor Speedway more than just a little bit, too.

"It's one of the nicest facilities in the country," he said. "I've raced
anywhere from California to Florida and North Dakota as far east as Ohio ...
it's one of the nicest I've been to. It's like a Field of Dreams type
thing," to discover a first-class dirt racing complex among corn fields,
next to a town with a wonderfully rural name like McCool Junction. "It's
awesome, just awesome. And it's kind of cool that it's right there where I
grew up ... in my own back yard.

As for tomorrow's two-hour stop at Moses Ford, Droud said, "Tell everybody
to come on out. We'll have a little York Duke Pride thing going on there."

Local fans were anticipating with relish a matchup between the Droud
brothers, but not this time. Rodney hoped to run tomorrow at McCool, but was
done in by another obligation.
"We usually race together," said Don, adding with a mischievous laugh, "Even
he would have to admit I'm better looking. Faster, too."

He was only poking a little good natured sibling fun at brother Rodney, but
the fact is Don Jr., will take the green flag tomorrow night standing fifth
among the 62 drivers listed in the Midwest Division ASCS 360 point
standings.