Hall of Fame historian Bob Mays marvels at Droud‘s ability to remain relevant, race at the highest level he can, and still win. Mays notes that for years he would spot Droud at one end of a race track not just glancing at the surface, but deep in thought.
He recalled those days when Droud would come running by his house doing everything he could to remain in shape and gain that extra edge that might help him at the race track.
True to form, Don would rebound from Cormack‘s car by reminding everyone that there was plenty in the tank. In 2001 he would join forces with Mark Burch once more.
The team finished second in points to Terry McCarl and won five times, and also bagged the inaugural 1,200-Pound Nationals over Danny Smith. He would make one more run at the Knoxville title in 2010, when he was paired with Hall of Fame owner Gil Sonnor.
One of Droud‘s two wins on the campaign came in the season opener but, in the end, he settled for the runner-up spot for the fourth time, slotting in behind Brian Brown.
One could hardly blame Droud for feeling a little snake-bitten. No matter how much he tried, it just seemed like titles eluded him.
Yes, he had won the National Motorsports Racing Ass’n crown, a group put together by Chuck Zitterich. But even that came about in an unusual fashion.
“We didn‘t even know we were racing for points,” Droud said. “Then we won the 360 portion of Cheaters Day (in Sioux Falls) and Chuck came up and said, ‘Congratulations, you won the championship.‘”
In 2016 it was a different story. Paired with the long-standing Ochs Brother‘s Racing team, the plan was to go all in for the NCRA championship.
With three victories on Kansas soil, Droud outdueled six-time champion C.J. Johnson for the crown.
For the record, over the course of the next two seasons, Droud would finish second in the NCRA standings to Jeremy Campbell.
No matter how far he roamed, nor how much he searched for the best possible combination needed to win, somehow Droud and Mark Burch always came back together.
In some respects, they have never parted.
When Burch was fielding cars for Danny Lasoski, Droud helped put them together. So here they were again prepared to take on the truncated 2020 season.
Accountants are all about numbers and remain analytical to their core. Given this, the fact that Droud and Burch have enjoyed a long association is a function of both emotion and logic.
“It all boils down to this,” Burch said. “Now, granted, we are good friends. But good drivers always get in good cars. I have never had a bad driver for very long, and if I did it was me.
“Doug Wolfgang watched me drive one night, and when I came in I was all smiles. I said, ‘Doug, what do you think?‘ He stared me straight in the eye and said ‘Sonny, you have zero talent.‘ Don is a really good race driver and it costs money to race. I understand that. It costs money to replace broken parts. The problem is, I don‘t have time to be rebuilding race cars every week. I don‘t have a fulltime gig running a sprint car team. Nobody likes fixing broken race cars. So, there are nights where we aren‘t pushing the issue.
“But the nights when we are good enough, we will.”
Boiled down to the basics, Burch understands he has a driver who can get to the front, but also knows how to take care of his equipment.
It may have surprised some to learn that Droud was no stranger to non-wing racing. In fact, he spent a year in Indiana working for Bob East and racing for the late Bill Biddle.
So, while he was game to take the wing off, there was no pre-arranged plan to run the entire USAC Midwest Wingless series. It just sort of happened that way.
“It certainly wasn‘t our intention when we started,” Droud said. “But partway through the deal I told Mark maybe we ought to go out and win it. I was kind of surprised at how things had gone but, on the other hand, Mark has great equipment and gives me everything I need. But I didn‘t know what I needed in a non-wing sprint car, and it took Mark half-a-summer to pull it out of me.
“I wish we could start this year over, because I know we would be even better.”
Still, when Droud made the suggestion to stick with the series, Burch was onboard.
“I think our goal was to just get better,” Burch noted. “And our biggest goal is to get ready for the 2021 Chili Bowl by doing some non-wing racing to sharpen our skills. Once we started racing with USAC, we enjoyed the competitors and Raoul (Romero) has done a great job promoting the series. We have had great support from USAC, we had great car counts all year, and we just had fun racing with them.
“The tracks were not terribly far away from us, so we just continued on with that.”
It proved to be a satisfying year.
When Droud topped the field at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., in late June, he joined an elite fraternity by becoming a sprint car winner in five different decades.
Later, when he was the best at the Ultimate Challenge at Oskaloosa, Iowa, his owner proclaimed that it was an example of a race that was won by sheer intellect.
Now he was standing in the pits at Bethany with a chance to win another championship. In the end he did everything he could. Don would win the race and, when the points where tallied, he and Burks were tied.
By virtue of overall wins, Burks took the driver‘s title, but Burch sat atop the entrant points. Neither man was heavily impacted by the end result.
As for Burch, he reiterated that a primary goal was to enjoy themselves and continue to raise awareness for pediatric cancer through the Team Jack Foundation.
“We race to win,” Burch said. “But we also race to have fun. We had pretty good success as we were continuing to learn. But Wyatt Burks deserved to be the champion. He won more races and he is a great racer.”
What both men did confirm was that, regardless of the outcome, the sun did indeed rise the next day.