Jimmy Kouba - Journal Archive

After finding ourselves 4th in Wissota national points, we made a last minute decision to head back to West Fargo and the Red River Valley Speedway. Why? If we could manage to improve our standings we could still qualify for the Brodix Tournament of Champions. More importantly, given what we are learning about this car, it seemed a good time to do some “field” work to continue the learning process.

HOT. If you’re not from around here, it might be hard to believe, but Fargo gets very hot in mid-summer. The temp was in the upper 90s. My worst draw of the year greeted us at the gate, the last number available out of the 19 cars attending. We started last in the 2nd heat. The good news is that we can get the car to turn left (that was a major problem before). The bad news, we were slow. It looked like I was dragging my feet or maybe I should have peddled the car Fred Flintstone style! We finished 8th, leaving us a long road ahead for the feature.

While we were able to pick up the pace some for the A main, we were still too slow. I ran toward the back most of the event. The bright spot is we finished the race, a first for this car at Fargo. Due mostly to attrition, we finished 10th. On a somber note, long time racer and family friend, Randy Nygaard was the victim of a nasty crash early in the feature. Tangling with a lapped car while in a heated battle for the lead, Randy flipped end-over-end multiple times. Randy was unconscious after the wreck but did wake prior to his ride to the local ER. Randy suffered a brain contusion and a couple of broken ribs. Best wishes to Randy for a speedy recovery. Despite being battered and bruised Randy is hoping to make it to the races this Thursday in Fargo as a spectator.

Speaking of those races, we have also added back in Fargo’s 3-day Wissota sprint event. This deal is run in conjunction with World of Outlaws. If you like sprints cars, this is the place to be this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.