Drivers to Watch 2016: Droste ready to 'come out swinging' in IMCA cars

Editor's note: This is the third in a three-part series on Eastern Iowa Drivers to Watch for 2016. These three drivers are racers who compete in multiple cars and at several tracks and are poised to have a successful season. Last year's contenders for Driver of the Year, including winner Justin Kay, Nathan Ballard and Tony Olson, were not eligible because of their high profile in the area. Part 1 was on Alburnett driver Brody Willett. Part 2 was on Dubuque's Jeremiah Hurst. Part 3 is on Waterloo driver Tyler Droste.

WATERLOO — Every time Tyler Droste stepped into a new class of racecar, he felt the doubt.

Going from go-karts to a USRA B-Mod at 12 years old, then to IMCA Sport Mod; from Sport Mod to IMCA Modified and from Modified to IMCA Late Model, Droste has sensed folks expecting the learning curve to be too difficult.

But along the way, it hasn't taken long at each step to prove he belonged — right up to winning both a main event and the Rookie of the Year in the IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series for Late Models.

Progressive improvement leads the 19-year-old Waterloo driver to a season in which he's poised to be a front-runner in both cars everywhere he goes.

'When I was younger, if people didn't know me or knew who I was, they saw some little kid getting in a car and figured they had to stay the hell away,' Droste said. 'But after they've raced me and found out that I wasn't out there to tear stuff up or run into people, it got better.

'A couple times when I moved up classes, people thought I'd struggle a little more than I did. I think we did a little better than some people expected us to do, moving up through there.'

Throughout this process, Droste has learned what he's learned and advanced as he has because he said he's been willing to listen.

In responding to a question about what's changed and his knowledge growth even in the handful of years he's been in the IMCA premier classes, Droste invoked some names that paid homage to the sport's history. Often young racers are accused of bucking experience and ignoring the lessons of guys who have been at it for years.

Droste certainly wants to make his own way, but he's not naïve enough to think he can't take anything from those who have come before him.

'You talk to people that have been doing it for years and years — talk to Kelly Shryock and people like that — they're always talking about stuff that's changing,' Droste said. 'The Gheer'd Up crew helps tremendously with the Late Model. Bob Harris helps us a lot and does our shocks. Jimmy Owens and Jeff Strope from LG2 Racecars help us whenever we need it. It helps the more guys you talk to; the more information you get and the more you can prepare.'

When it comes to who he's developed into as a driver, Droste said his style has come to be quite different from who he is off the track.

Many racers can identify with the racecar bringing something out in them that otherwise wouldn't surface, and in his case, Droste said it's a huge part of what's made him successful so far. A track championship at Independence Motor Speedway, weekly and touring wins came because he learned something about himself very quickly.

Droste said he's 'lucky enough not to have to pay' for his racecars, but he certainly wrenches on them — whether it's his family's No. 92 Modified or the No. 31 Late Model owned by Doug Cue and Gene Budzine. The patience that comes as a result, he said, has earned him some respect in the pit area and on the track.

'I'd say I'm pretty calm, collected and patient driving. Which, if you know me, is probably pretty hard to believe because I don't have any patience in anything else,' Droste said. 'I would think they (other drivers) would say the same thing. You always have a few people out there who don't like you or it seems like things always happen with one person, but there's really nobody out there I could say I hate racing against or wouldn't want to race side by side with. I've never heard anybody say they don't want to race next to me, so I'd probably have to say they think the same thing.'

This season will mark the second full campaign in the Deery Brothers Summer Series, and while he hopes to hit big money shows in the Modified, he also has some hope Cue and Budzine will field an Open Late Model car for some of those high-paying shows coming to the area.

Whatever car he's in, Droste enters this season more confident than he has any other. There's no more break-in period. He's no longer a fresh-faced rookie who his competitors will overlook. Droste, his dad Steve, Cue and Budzine all feel like a big season is ahead of them.

'I think each year we've kind of gotten better and better in the Modified and in the Late Model last year we had really good success,' Droste said. 'I think we don't have as much to learn with the Late Model and the Modified, and I think we're going to come out swinging this year.'

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com