Jimmy Kouba - Journal Archive

Jackson Speedway, what to do, what to do… On May 3rd, we headed back to the ½ mile black dirt of one of longest running Sprint facilities in the upper Midwest. Have I exorcized my "Jackson Demons", well… no, BUT I am improving.

For the first time this year, I pulled the number in our random draw. Number 6 came up in my hand awarding me with the pole position for the 3rd of 3 heats. This extraordinary event means I, and my magic fingers, have draw duty for the rest of the season. (Now let me say this about that… somehow the word "random" has escaped me in my obsession with the draw. I know that Jamie is not cursed and that I did not develop mystic powers that gift me great draws. "Random" is, well, random, but grant me my delusions for the moment. OK?)

We had a great start, grabbing the lead into the first turn. Then, reality set in coming off turn 2, when we immediately dropped to second. Both our car and the track were much improved over our previous week. Even with improvement, my corner entry was not up to speed (literally). While we settled into 3rd for most of the race, we finished 4th. OK, but we had work to do for the feature.

Jackson has implemented a feature line-up system based on point average of the last few shows attended. With 3 heats (22 cars), the top 4 finishers in each heat were lined up for the feature in inverse order of point average. The remaining cars are then lined up behind that front 12. With our only race not being very stellar, we started 2nd row outside. Not too bad a spot, given the track looked to be pretty fast.

Never have I been passed so much and still ran 3rd! At the drop of the feature event's green flag, we shot a hole on the outside of the front stretch landing us in 4th for the first circuit. Gathering myself up, we moved into third a lap or two later. This was the full extent of any honest passing by me my trusty mount. Race leader Gordy Vogelaar pulled away from us with 2nd place Curt Lund in hot pursuit. Although I can't remember who all passed me and in what order, between spins and a blown motor (by Vogelaar), we stayed in third until late in the event. By that time, Curt Lund had taken the lead, only to lose it to Jake Peters. Curt earned the lead back as Jake took a scenic sojourn behind the backstretch. Meanwhile, Rob Tvedte had snatched third from me. Jake's side trip brought out the yellow flag and put him at the tail end of a dwindling field of cars. As I was fading from contention, Jerry Richert Jr. came charging by, once again shunting me to 4th. No saves were in store this time, as I was soon passed for a second time by Jake "the Snake" Peters. In a last ditch effort I held off Roger Rager's last lap charge and finished 5th. Lund won the event. It was his second win of the night having already won the Modified feature. Tvedte was 2nd, followed by Peters, JR Jr., yours truly, Rager, Mark Toews, Randy Rosenboom, Scott Broty and Ryan Voss.

As I am writing this, I realized that 3 of the top 10 finishers all started their Sprint careers in used Stevenson Chassis first driven by me. Mark began in my 1990 Stevenson. That car had won 4 mains while in our stable. Rob started off in our 1993 Stevenson. It only had 1 win while in our possession, but "Tweeter" found its sweet spot and raced it with great success at Jackson. He sold the car to Ryan Voss giving him his sprint start. It's funny what happens while a guy is busy living and racing…

Don't look now but we are heading back to Jackson again this Saturday, May 10th. We have a more to do to be a top runner there, but we are improving. (Thanks Jamie!)