Jimmy Kouba - Journal Archive

Here's hoping you are wintering well (always a concern in the north land). As our first real bout with snow and cold is in full force, the thoughts in the Kouba household are turning toward the new race season. Parts are being ordered, repairs and tune-ups are in process, and a tentative schedule is in place.

2002 started off with a whimper and ended with a bang-- followed by a crumple and a crush. We struggled through all types of ills in the first half of the season, but ended strong. Strong, that is, until we crashed on the first lap of the last feature of the season: a cold, frosty affair at Superior Speedway in October. Too bad, as the car was a full half second faster then the entire field in the heats. Oh well... on to a recap of the fun stuff.

Jimmy Kouba won the W.W. Thompson Concrete Products Sprint Series championship hosted by North Central Speedway in Brainerd, MN. We also brought home 4th in the WISSOTA national point standings. In route, the team racked up 3 feature wins (again, we just can't seem to break that barrier). We brought home one of the coolest trophies from the first ever Mighty Axe Nationals race held at Brainerd. A gold plated double-bit axe has joined our collection! The 2K landed four 2nd place finishes, a total of twelve top 5's, and twenty-four top 10's. In the "close, but no banana" category, we missed a three-peat win of the Earl Kouba Memorial by 1 spot. But, we did repeat a win at Grand Rapids Open Wheel Frenzy. Now, time to focus on this season.

For 2003, WISSOTA added Black Hills Speedway's and Jackson Speedway's weekly programs to last year's traveling dates and the weekly program at Fargo. This amounts to 81 races sanctioned by WISSOTA. An enterprising team could, theoretically, hit 59 races, provided they were willing to road like an Outlaw and had the time (not to mention the budget!). Our tentative plan has 37 dates in it. Stay tuned as that is likely to change. Schedule fluctuations are still likely and our season budget is not finalized. Even with a reduced scheduled, we would still have a shot at the WISSOTA national title. This year, the final tally of points will include a driver's best 20 shows (down from 25 shows last year).

Our goal (straight from the Crew Chief and co-owner) is CONSISTENCY. Preferably, this means consistent top-3 heat finishes and top-5 feature finishes. I personally would like to have a few good trophy dash runs, as last year's dash performances stunk. Jamie is pouring over our setups and notes from the past few years. As always, her objective eye will find what usually worked and what didn't....leaving implementation of those observations up to Lady Luck and her driver!

In other news, we are excited to be working with a few new advertising partners and product sponsors this year. Watch for our announcements as details are finalized. Also, our long neglected website has new information. A new look is also in the works, but is still a few months out. Hopefully it will be worth the wait!