Droste shifting focus to IMCA Late Models

FARLEY - Advancing up the racing ladder has many challenges regardless of circumstances.

Every time a racer climbs in a new type of car, there's a period of adjustment, and how quickly a driver makes that adjustment is often directly related to their versatility and depth of talent. The adjustment is only harder when the competition level is raised.

Waterloo racer Tyler Droste has learned that repeatedly in his short 18 years, having advanced up into different types of racecars - and winning along the way. He won a track championship at Independence Motor Speedway in an IMCA Modified in 2013, and won the World Nationals at Marshalltown Speedway last fall. He also started racing an IMCA Late Model last season with a steep learning curve.

And as the IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series for Late Models rolls into Farley Speedway on Friday for its third race of the season, Droste will be among them. He's not patient when it comes to results, and like everyone else at the track, he wants to win. Racing against the best will help him get there faster, he said.

'Running with better competition definitely has helped,” Droste said. 'Even just with the Modifieds, instead of running weekly stuff, we go run specials and race with the best of the best. It makes you a better driver. With the Late Model, we'll hit more tracks this year because the more tracks you run, the easier it is to adapt to other, newer tracks.”

Droste got hooked up with Doug Cue and Gene Budzene, old fans and fellow racers with Droste's grandfather. The owners offered to put the Waterloo West graduate into a Late Model in November of 2013, and he couldn't turn it down.

His 2014 season, though, wasn't what he wanted it to be. He raced primarily at Independence - as he will again this season, and will chase the track championship - and hit select Summer Series races as well. He learned from the struggles, though, and his team changed chassis manufacturers to the new Gheer'd Up chassis fielded by Justin Kay's crew chief Tyson Gheer.

That change, plus his year of experience, got 2015 started off differently than 2014. Droste finished third at the Rebel 5K at Davenport Speedway in the first night out.

'At the beginning of last year we struggled a little bit, but this year after coming out the first night out at Davenport with a bunch of good cars and getting third kind of put a big boost in us,” Droste said. 'We've got a new car this year that's a little better. And the guy who builds them, Tyson Gheer at Gheer'd Up, he's helping a lot with changes at the track. It's been a big help so far.”

There's room to grow still, as evidenced by his failing to make the A-main at the Summer Series race in West Liberty. What they learned from that night, he said, keeps his confidence intact.

Something that will help this season is his plan is to not run his Modified and Late Model on the same night as he did nearly every time out at Independence last season. It takes a different driving style with the different types of cars, and he said trying to juggle both makes things more challenging than they need to be.

He's sure of his abilities and being able to succeed in both cars, downplaying the vastness of the differences, but wants to shift his priorities. His Modified is family-owned, unlike the Late Model. So this year, if it comes down to one or the other, it's Late Model first.

'I think sometimes people might make it a little bigger than what it is, the differences (between Modified and Late Model),” Droste said. 'As long as you don't run both cars the same night, I don't think it's that big of a deal. If you're running one (car) one night and one another, I don't think it affects you too much.

'This year we're trying to pay attention to the Late Model more. We'll pay attention to the Modified too, but if (Cue and Budzene) want to go run the Late Model, we told them we want to run that more this year. If we don't run the Modified at all this year, that's fine with us.”

The Deery Brothers Summer Series Late Models race for $3,000 to win on Friday night at Farley Speedway, with IMCA Modifieds running for $1,000 as the support class. Grandstand gates open at 6 p.m. with hot laps starting at 7.

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