Stratford teen making impression on racing circuit

WAUSAU – The orange and black stock car, emblazoned with a No. 9 on the roof and doors, turns one lap after another during a preseason test run at the State Park Speedway last Tuesday as a five-member crew looks on outside the track

When the short run is completed, the car pulls off the track, and Derek Kraus, a blond 13-year-old Stratford native who is 4-foot-11, takes off his helmet and scampers out of the driver's side window to confer with the crew that has gathered alongside the car hauler just beyond the track.

He isn't even old enough to have a road driver's permit, but he has been turning laps on a track.

In his first competitive race, at 12, he started in the back of the pack in a truck series race in Wisconsin Dells and ended up finishing third.

Last month he won the truck feature in Rockford, Ill. He became the youngest driver to win a feature in the Rockford Speedway's 86-year history, and also the youngest driver to win a race in the 18-year history of the American Ethanol SuperTruck Series.

"The champion from last year was on my bumper the whole time, and my spotter finally told me, 'Stop looking in the mirror.' I had been looking the whole time," Derek said. "I did get nervous at points in the race when he was getting on the inside or outside of me."

While Derek — who is also racing in the Super Late Model series on a limited basis this summer — also is active in football baseball and wrestling in Stratford, it is racing where his passion lies.

"His dream is NASCAR, but that is something that we don't really talk about right now," said his father Mark, a former driver who retired from racing after 26 years and is now Derek's pit crew chief. "It is a dream."

The plan is to have Derek compete in 15 to 16 races in the truck series this season, and run five to six late model races as well.

Most tracks have a policy of a minimum age of 14 for drivers, but some will grant waivers for those younger if there is the track owner has the confidence that the individual youth can handle the vehicle in a competitive setting.

"(Racing) is in his blood," Derek's mother Kathy Kraus said. "The first time we brought him to the track was when he was three weeks old."

Kraus has been an early achiever throughout his life. He was riding a bike without training wheels when he was 2 years old and was racing box stock go-karts in Clintonville by the time he was seven.

That was just the beginning of his time on the track.

"I would take him to the track when he was 2 when (Mark) would race and we would have to watch every race," Kathy Kraus said. "He has always had that comfort level (around racing)."

Derek graduated to racing bandoleros — an entry-level class that are mini-stock cars and reach speeds of roughly 50 to 60 miles per hour — on dirt and asphalt tracks and won the Midwest Bandolero points championship the past two years. A large banner hangs in the Kraus's shop in rural Stratford, which celebrates the bandolero season championship at State Park Speedway in 2014.

The numerous trophies from Derek's racing career are also on display at the shop, which houses the truck he drives as well as two Super Late Model cars. The frame for a third Super Late Model is also in the shop, a project to be completed over the next few months.

Derek learned how to drive a stick shift on a "junk car" that Mark bought from a salvage yard, and they would drive around the rural Stratford subdivision they live in.

"After that, we went to the Columbus 151 track and ran some laps and he caught on," Mark said.

Derek went to New Smyrna, Fla., made his Super Late Model debut this past winter to take part in the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing, where he qualified for the 100-lap feature on the final night. He also drove in a late model race in Alabama during the same trip.

"I felt pretty good for my first time in a Super Late Model. I could tell the (power difference) from racing a truck as soon as you get on the gas, you snap sideways a little bit," Derek said. "It takes a little while to get used to the Super, but after a few nights (in Florida), I got pretty comfortable and raced pretty good. I finished 12th in points down there."

It was the start for something he hopes develops into a career.

"I hope to make it to NASCAR someday," Derek said. "That's my goal."

Tim Johnson can be reached at 715-845-0731. Find him on Twitter @timmyjo11.