Nearly a week after losing his father, Drake Troutman found victory lane. The memorable win occurred during the August 20 Renegades of Dirt modified event at Roaring Knob Motorsports Complex in Markleysburg, Pennsylvania.
David “D.J.” Troutman, 39, passed away unexpectedly on August 12. It left a massive void in the life of his son.
“He said he didn’t feel well,” Troutman, 17, of Hyndman, Pennsylvania, said. “He thought it was a sinus infection, so we kept on racing.”
After the Troutmans returned home after racing on the road, they took the Troutman patriarch to the hospital.
“Eight days later, he had passed,” Troutman said. “He had Covid-19 and pneumonia.”
Troutman continues to struggle with his dad’s death. The two raced together since the younger Troutman first started racing.
“We were the best of friends,” said Troutman. “He was with me all the time. First thing in the morning, we’d have breakfast together. I’d do my online studies every morning to have more time to race and work on the race cars. Then, we’d have lunch together. His office was 50 yards from my race shop. We did everything together — all day, every day.”
Troutman, a rising star in dirt modified and late model racing, owns 18 feature victories this season. (See “Drake Troutman: “The Kid” Who Won the Winternationals”.) Troutman said he intends to continue racing.
“My dad loved racing so much,” Troutman said. “I know he would want me to be right back at it. The win was for him.”
Bedford Speedway in Pennsylvania will host a tribute race to D.J. Troutman on September 24–25. Each night hosts a 39-lap A-main for the modifieds that pays $12,007 to win, $507 to start. Also, both Friday and Saturday will have a non-qualifiers race that pays $1,000 to win.
“There is more that I will miss about my dad than the racing part of his life,” said Troutman. “I loved being around him, as did a lot of other people. He was everything to me, and I’m hoping for a big turnout at his tribute race.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
