Jimmy Kouba - Journal Archive

In the time since my last update, we’ve done more racing then we have done for an entire season in years past. When competing that much and that often it is easy to see why full-time professional racers like the World of Outlaws have such an advantage over the average weekend warrior. During August Heat, we were able to apply our learning, experiment, learn anew and refine again--all in the space of one week. That was the equivalent learning cycle of 3-6 weeks of normal weekend racing. The added bonus is that the driver, mechanic and crew keep a constant focus. There were few of the distractions from racing that usually occur back at home and back at work. The results... we’ll have to see how the season plays out, but our team is more confident and comfortable then we have been at any other point this season.

August Heat started Monday, August 12 and went through to Sunday, August 18 with a race scheduled for each of the 7 nights. Onward to the recap…

Day 1: Bright and early, we left Byron, our trailer filled to the brim with tires and spare parts. (If last year was an indicator we would need everything including the kitchen sink to make through this series.) A scant 9 hours later, we rolled into Aberdeen, SD. Starting 4th in the heat, we finished 3rd. The track was fast, but more important, the car felt very good on this sticky 3/8 mile. Luck smiled briefly when we landed a front row outside starting spot for the feature. That lucky feeling left early. The pole sitter, Greg Nikitenko, wasn’t keen on the idea of us having a fair start and proceeded to jump the green flag not once, but twice. On the second restart, Chuck Swenson must have decided he liked my tires better then his own. Driving over my left side, he launched himself into 2nd. Meanwhile we were launched airborne and sideways directly in front of 20 other racers. By good driving and good fortune, everyone missed me and I was able to get the car headed straight again. With no yellow flag (for the poor start), I was now buried in mid-pack. Worse, although I didn’t know it at the time, the front end was knocked severely out of alignment. 30 laps later, we managed a 7th place finish in spite of it all. Oh boy, here we go again… Micah Schliemann took the feature win.

Day 2: Leaving Aberdeen, we stopped near the Minnesota – South Dakota border to clean the car and affect repairs. Finding the hauler needed attention too, this took a couple hours longer than intended. We rolled into Grove Creek in central MN just in time. We have never been a top performer at “the creek”, but our heat run seemed to show that was behind us. A tail end start was worked into a 4th place finish, the last qualifying spot for the A main. We started 13th for the A and the car was working very well. The track was slick with a narrow groove right on the bottom. We had just moved into 7th past John Nelson. John attempted to retake the spot in turn 2. The slide job was not completely successful, having failed to clear me before sliding up the track. The impact to my left side (again!?!) left me turned around and stalled. I came to find out later, that this happened just as the yellow was being thrown for a Jake Peters spin on the opposite end of the track. Having stopped on the track, I restarted at the tail of the field. (Although many believe I should have gotten my spot back, my restart actually worked according to the rules.) I was able to muscle the car back up to a 9th place finish at the end of the 30 laps. Not too bad considering the left front tire was pulled back over 3 inches due to a bent axle and radius rods. Loren Langerud won the event. Bangiddy-bang-bang and off we go…

Day 3: The trip to Golden Spike near Sauk Rapids, MN was a short one from our temporary “headquarters” in St. Cloud. Whatever we thought we knew was not right for the heat. I backed up faster then an alley cat in a dog pound after the drop of the green. Finishing 6th in the heat, I started the feature from the 18th spot. The slick surface prooved too much for many drivers as a string of red flag stoppages plagued the race. The drawn out event played to our advantage, though. Although we started out fairly strong, we were able to improve the handling throughout the 30 lap event. On the white flag, we passed Rob Caho, Jr. to take second. Not enough laps were left to close in on race winner Tony Hargrave (his first Wissota win). Hey, maybe practice does make perfect…

Day 4: The running of the 10th Annual Earl Kouba Memorial at Princeton, MN was our next stop and was the highest paying race of the series at $1,600 to win. Dad’s #55 1947 Kurtis Kraft Offy midget was in fine form thanks to the polishing efforts of Joseph Kouba. During the night’s intermission, the crowd was treated to three generations of the Kouba #55. Joe took to the track in his #55 sprinter, Joseph wedged himself into his grandpa’s #55 midget and Joe’s youngest daughter Anna came with her #55 go-kart. The parade laps in formation were impressive. Princeton had been a good track for our 2K in the past, so I was a little disappointed with the 2nd place finish in my heat, given I started on the front row. Taking the car setup in the wrong direction, the dash went worse with a 5th place result for our efforts. Larry Ball Jr. took the dash win. Starting 6th in the feature, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t pull a 3-peat win. We went conservative with our set-up (gun shy after the dash). This was the wrong choice, but between force of will and a reasonably cooperative car, we pulled out a 2nd in another grueling 30 lapper. Roger Rager charged up mid-way in the event to take the lead and maintained it to earn the win. Look for Roger’s and Larry’s inscriptions on the Earl Kouba Memorial plaques during your next visit to the Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum in Knoxville, IA.

Day 5: We rested. Fargo was scheduled to run, but we had family commitments plus needed time to regroup. This turned out OK for us as the Fargo events were rained out after 1 heat. (Although the race was cancelled, the next week Fargo ran a make-up feature. I still haven’t figured out how it was canceled due to rain and it qualified for a make-up feature, but that’s for others to ponder. However it worked, Loren Langerud won the make-up feature held the following week.)

Day 6: To the fabled land of Paul Bunyan (Brainerd, MN), we ventured for our next installment of racing. The Brainerd facility had been plagued with rain canceling many of their events in previous weeks. Storms rolled through again the night before the race, drenching the area. Rains held off for our event but the track was so saturated with water that the surface ended up rutted with large holes. This made for a heavy, rough race track. I’ve never like the rough stuff and it showed. We finished 5th in the heat, at times barely keeping the car under me and pointed in the right direction. The feature went much better. We started 16th and moved up to 9th. I wasn’t fast, but I was stable. Maybe, just maybe, we learned something that would help the next night. Loren Langerud won the feature.

Day 7: After much debate, the team decided to give Buffalo River (near Glyndon, MN) one more try. This track has left me baffled, bruised and broken in nearly all of my previous 5 outings. But with a little knowledge picked up at Brainerd, maybe it was worth another shot. Starting 4th in the heat, I finished 4th. Not a remarkable finish, but the car did feel comfortable. The bad news was I would start 10th in the 30 lap feature on this tight little bull-ring. Our learning paid off, the car was great (the driver took awhile to come around, but that wasn’t the car’s fault). We moved up to 5th by finish time. At one point, I had made the pass for 4th. I wasn’t able to keep it and Raleigh Sandberg retook the spot. Brad Pake took the win. The best news: we actually PASSED CARS at Buffalo River. Wow. Besides our set-up, the track was in the best shape ever. Maybe we did learn a little…

We did miss home and by this time were getting pretty tired of that restaurant with the green trim and huge American flag out front, but we weren’t ready to stop the racing string. I guess that makes this series a success for us. If you still want more, it must have been good, right? We did have fun overall. But once we did hit home, we weren’t too ready to go charging out again.

Racers to the extreme, the family couldn’t stand a weekend off. The following Saturday marked our season debut at the local go-kart facility. Jake had a great time. In 4 events, he had three 4th place finishes and a 2nd in the finale. He sure looks to be a cool-headed racer taking bumps and spinning cars in stride. Completing the evening, Kaitie made her first laps in the kart. Heading out between events and at the end of the night, Kate logged over 30 laps. Two things of note: 1) Kate will stand on the gas! 2) She is a quick study. She took over 3 seconds off her lap times from the start of the night to her last few. We celebrated our new driver-in-the-family by heading to the local Outback. Yum!

Last Saturday brought the Wissota Sprints back to Huron, SD. The weather there is always nicer in the fall! Taking a short leave of my senses, I drew my starting spot (instead of Jamie): last in the first heat. This time our set up was right on. We were 3rd coming out of turn 2 after the drop of the green. We went on to take the lead and the heat win. My win “earned” us a 5th row inside start in the feature. We moved up to 7th quickly, but tapped out there for quite awhile. The car wasn’t bad, but it was very touchy. If I ran just the right line, we were as fast as the leaders. If I altered that line a little, we dropped a half second or more. By the time Tony Hargrave took the checkers for his second Wissota win, we had earned 5th place.

Looks like more then enough writing for now. If you lasted this long: thanks (or congratulate yourself for having extraordinary perseverance). Keep an eye on the Wissota points battle, it should be a good one through to the end of the season. Next up… Watertown, SD on Sept. 7.