Jimmy Kouba - Journal Archive

It has been a long and somewhat frustrating couple of weeks. The Fargo track has continued to elude our best attempts and dished out a little retribution to us for trying. BUT a bright side began to show during our appearance in Proctor.

At my last note, we were about to venture back to Fargo for a two-day weekend. We were full of hope that we had figured out the demons in the car from the earlier week and had exorcized them permanently. It didn't take long to dispel the hope. A few laps into our heat on Friday showed the car was improved, but not yet racy enough to compete. A few laps into the main event and the demons were back in force. I was forced to withdraw our possessed mount from competition. Actually, I thought a tire had let down when the car nearly tipped over on its own heading into the turn. I pulled it in and was very surprised to find all tires and components intact. On further inspection, we no longer believe the culprit is a demonic spirit sent to bedevil us. We think we had a clearance problem between our inboard brake rotor and the fuel tank.

Thanks to the Langerud crew and Chuck's shop facilities, we were able to make adjustments on Saturday for round two of Jimmy versus Fargo. The car was much improved. However, the night ended early as a steering component broke while lining up for the feature. I hit the turn four wall before the green flag ever waved. The evening of racing was over.

To add insult to the injury we were informed at the payoff window that there was no money for us. The Fargo policy is to not pay unless the car takes the green flag in a feature, further more they do not pay any tow money. So despite qualifying the car for the A-main when other cars were required to run a B and paid for running it, we came home with no money for the night. In a prompt response, a track official left word the next day that the situation would be rectified and a check mailed on Monday. As of yet, no check has arrived.

Given this policy (and treatment) and the fairly large expense in cash, travel time, and day-job impact we've decided we cannot afford to continue racing Fargo on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, this decision will drop us out of the running for a spot in the Brodix Tournament of Champions (Aug. 4 at Knoxville, IA). Only the top three in Wissota points will be invited and we are unlikely to be in that bunch. We will still have a slim chance to defend our Wissota Championship. Wissota counts the best 25 shows for its National point calculation. Odds are slim that we can make a run, but we will give it all we have and hope for the best.

Last weekend, we finally made a non-Fargo race trip. Saturday's race was in Ashland WI and Sunday's was in Proctor MN. At Ashland we took a 4th place heat finish (should have had second) and a 10th in the feature. Although it doesn't sound that great, the good news was that we were racy and in the hunt. A bad break on the start left me hung out to dry while a NASCAR type freight train drove by on the inside. By the time I recovered I was 20th. So getting back up to 10th didn't feel that bad. Loren Langerud continued with his very impressive season by winning the event. Sunday in Proctor started off with a bang. We won our heat from the back of the pack. In the next event, brother Joe repeated his Ashland performance by again winning his heat. A super slick track greeted us for the feature. My redrawn starting spot was in the fourth row. Although I passed cars, I was passed by cars an equal amount and ended where I started, in 7th. We read the track as dry, but had underestimated just how dry. The night's high note was the final victor, none other then Joe Kouba rolling in for his first win of the season.

Next up... an exhibition on this Saturday, June 1st, at Deer Creek Speedway near Spring Valley MN. We are helping to drum up interest in the June 22nd race scheduled there. It is near home and you gotta love that. Our next competition event will be at North Central Speedway, Brainerd, MN on June 8th. We will have to see if last year's bull ring set-ups still work...