Derek Dudding

"Everyone is cheating 'cause they're way too much faster than me. They should be arrested for a million years."

- Derek Dudding, referring to his competition.

Derek Darryl Dudding (born May 11, 1984) is a driver in the FARC Truck Series, "competing" for his own DD Racing team (formerly "awsum supr cool n awsum racin") behind the wheel of the #68 Dude's Pizza truck.

Dudding quickly become a center of controversy in his 2011 rookie campaign in the ARLA Elite Series, running well off the pace and complaining about his competition almost every week. His driving skills have shown little sign of improvement to this day.

Biography
Dudding was born on May 11, 1984 in the Evergreen Grove Mobile Home Park, located in Durham, North Carolina. He was raised by mother Natalie Boze; his father Darryl left shortly after his birth. Dudding was homeschooled after failing kindergarten. Dudding expressed an interest in racing at an early age, starting with racing other kids in Cozy Coupes at the age of 8. Dudding then took up Mario Kart for the next 15 years of his life, and won his first Mario Kart 50cc title in 1999.

In 2010, Dudding decided to make the move to stock cars, and after securing enough funding, he purchased a Cromwell CS and entered it in the ARLA Elite Series race at Watkins Glen. However, in the qualifying race, Dudding plunged into the turn 1 wall head-on when he briefly forgot how to turn right. Dudding's performance attracted the attention of the TTE Motor Company, who offered him their support for the 2010 race at Decatur. Dudding flipped his car on the pace lap for the qualifier in his new RB6 (which was declared "The Worst Car in America" by the automotive magazine Wheelmen), but TTE still decided to back Dudding's team for the full 2011 season.

In the final race of the 2010 ARLA Elite Series season at Rockford, his wife Danielle drove for Tom Delgado's MRD Motorsports, but she failed to pre-qualify despite starting on pole. This upset Derek, as he repeatedly claimed that Danielle was supposed to be his crew chief.

It was known that during this time, Dudding worked a second job as a greeter at Karl's Superstores, where he was repeatedly reprimanded for trying to stop African-American customers from entering the store.

2011
Dudding attempted to compete the full ARLA schedule in 2011, and was either in the back of the pack, out of the race, or, in the 2 Canadian rounds and Elk Ridge, did not show up due to not knowing where Canada is. Derek blamed his misfortunes on either his competitors cheating or being bullied by series officials. He did, however, pick up some sponsorship from Evrsorb Tampons before Verdugo.

2012
Dudding was picked up by Team Burr, joining A.J. Young and Paul Lyons, largely due to his Evrsorb sponsorship. In January, Dudding finally claimed his second 50cc championship in Mario Kart. He celebrated by drinking copious amounts of chocolate milk. He followed this up with a shocking third 50cc title heading into the Carbondale weekend. His mother was very proud of this amazing accomplishment, and treated him to fries at Grease Burger. His ARLA season was much less successful, taking Kyle Gaffigan out of contention for a win at Mosport, and missing the race at Orange County after somehow managing to break his nose while playing Mario Kart. He was, however, suprisingly voted into the All-Star race at Rockford, alongside teammate AJ Young.

2013-present
Dudding continue to be a familiar face in the back of the grid, doing little of note aside from being voted into the All-Star races again in both 2013 and 2014. FARC news and rumors site Fuel Spill spearheaded the campaign to vote Dudding into the 2014 Sommerlabs All-Star Classic, and purchased Dudding and Team Burr a brand-new V8 Saar for the race, with sponsorship from Fuel Spill. With a capable car under him at the New York Autoring, Dudding managed to lead a lap for the first time ever in his career (much to his own surprise and horror), and brought the car home in 12th, on the lead lap. Dudding would be collected in an accident (suprisingly not of his own doing) in the points race that same weekend, however, and the Saar would be written off, leaving Derek to return to his backmarker purgatory.

Team Burr cut back to a part-time schedule for 2015, with Derek sharing his car with Morey Holter. However, Dudding got the last laugh as Holter failed to qualify for any races, while Derek started three, with a best finish of 19th at New York.

Dudding reached a low point in 2016 as his Evrsorb funding dried up, and he made only two attempts with Burr at Daytona and Road America, failing to qualify for both. He returned in 2017 for five races, but only started at Nashville thanks to drawing a Wild Card, his last Lowe Dollar Series start to date. Not to be deterred from his racing dreams, Dudding made a move to the lower-cost and less challenging FARC Truck Series, driving for Team Burr teammates Cletus McGuffie and Billy Bob Bradburn. Dudding's #68 truck carried sponsorship from Dude's Pizza, where Dudding had found a new second job as a delivery driver.

In spite of the decreased competition, Dudding was still not able to find the pace to score a top ten and finished last in the standings for the 20-truck field. But ever persistent, Derek returned in 2018, now fielding his own entry for the first time since 2011. At the Piqua Fairgrounds, Derek achieved the impossible dream of his first FARC top 10, and he finished 15th in the final standings with his consistently slow but steady pace.