Jimmy Kouba - Journal Archive

1) What is a “pedologist” and why would a race team like one?
2) What do the following people have in common (aside from racing sprint cars at some point in their career): Barney Oldfield, Emory Collins, Jerry Richert Sr., Don Mack, Doug Wolfgang, Randy Nygaard and Brad Pake?
Stay tuned for the answers…

The shores of Lake Superior were a welcoming sight as we returned to Ashland, Wisconsin for the July 26th Chuck Anderson Race of Champions. Yes, it is a beautiful place, but the real welcome was a return to a track that has brought us 2 wins out of 4 attempts. Now that is a beautiful thing.

Under the threat of rain and a brief, but fierce bout of high wind, we completed hot laps. I don’t usually comment on hot laps (practice), but hot laps at ABC Speedway seem to haunt me. Each time I hit the track for practice, the conditions throw me for a loop. You see the red clay of Ashland changes drastically from the start of the night to feature. Each time, I get wrapped up in the track conditions from hot laps and lose my head when prepping for the feature. Ask my crew chief; we can’t agree on a heat race set-up to save our souls. Saturday was no exception. The car was not good in practice and that in turn spooked us out of our rhythm for the heat. I backed up for a disappointing 5th place and stuck myself back to a 10th place start for the feature.

The feature start was rough, ragged and largely unexpected. Half the field wasn’t prepared to get the green. Even after the flag waved it wasn’t clear (at least to me) if we were racing or taking a few speed laps to work in the track. I did figure it out and did get on the move. We moved through the field with ease. Our car was absolutely awesome. Even with a great car, we needed help. This was not the night. Our 25 lap feature went flag to flag. Each lap, allowed young John Nelson to stretch his lead. At one point, we did pass Roger Rager for second and slowly began to gain on John. It didn’t last. Moving further into lapped traffic, Rager closed the gap. As I was stuck battling with a lapped car, Roger took back second. We battled heavy with Alan Gilbertson to save third and came out on top of that. John Nelson went on to take his first Wissota sprint win, followed by Roger, me and Alan.

So, what is a “pedologist” and why would a race team like one? It is a soil scientist. A dirt track team could really use one to analyze the race surface and figure out what its going to do as the temp, humidity, and other climate conditions change. It is amazing to me to realize just how many different types of dirt and clay exist in this small region of the world!!! Plus, each and every one acts differently to moisture, heat and race tires… oy vey!

Sunday brought about a hasty trip back home for another round of kart racing with Jake. We are finally getting the kart and our Blue Wazoom motor working well. Jake started his first event 6th and finished 3rd. He followed this great run with a 2nd place, moving up from 4th. His mechanics let him down a bit for the last two runs. Jamie and I left the car a bit too tight. Jake ended the night with a 4th and then a 5th in the final two events.

Bright and early Monday morning, we were set for our annual trip to Huron, South Dakota. Well, almost set; we found we had a flat tire on the trailer. Its mate was half bald from shouldering the load. After some hasty phone calls, we sent our most trusted gopher, Mom Kouba, out to get two new tires mounted up. A short time later and we were really ready to leave.

Huron, South Dakota is the home of the Dakota State Fair Speedway. This storied track has a racing heritage dating back to 1914. Winners of the annual State Fair event at this track are immortalized on the Wall of Fame, a good sized display on the backside of the grandstand honoring drivers for 80+ years of excitement. The answer to pop-quiz question 2 is: all of these drivers, and more, have won the State Fair sprint car event and have their name on the wall of fame.

Every since learning of the wall and reading this list of names, I’ve wanted to be a part of that history. You see, our family has a special affinity with Barney Oldfield. My brother Joe was convinced the he WAS Barney Oldfield when “he was here before”. Of course he was three at the time and later moved on to be convinced of other things, but the story stuck inside the family, giving Barney a special place in our family’s racing lore. The other names on that list, well, their records and names speak for themselves.

We had a strong run in our heat, starting 4th and moving up to third behind Loren Langerud and track hot shoe, Shane Liebig. This put us in the feature redraw and that landed us a front row outside spot in the starting grid. We had a good start, moving outside of pole sitter Chuck Swenson down the back chute, we had the lead by a nose. It was not to last as behind us in turn 2 there had been a massive pile-up. Six cars were involved, sending 4 to the infield on a hook. On the full double file restart, Chuck had his elbows up taking a firm lead. We fell into a solid second. The 30 lap race was plagued with yellows, some for spins, but many were for mechanical breakdowns. In one of the longer early green runs, still before the half way mark, 3rd place running Liebig closed tight on us to challenge for 2nd. Shane himself, however, brought out the next yellow when he overcommitted his entrance into turn 3. Barely tapping our left rear, Shane lost the handle on his mount and spun into the outside wall. Swenson’s car fell victim to mechanical problems during the yellow leaving us in first and Langerud in 2nd. Loren gave us a hard run, but it wasn’t enough. He too, fell victim to the night, shredding his right rear and bringing out a yellow. From that point we were challenged by Dusty Ballenger and Roger Rager in turn. We held firm to Rager’s best charge in the last lap and took the win. Roger followed in second with Dusty and Loren in tow.

We won! We earned a modest spot in history alongside some of the greatest names in sprint racing. Wow!!! At the end, we were running on fumes and our tires were bald, but we were running and running in front. I can’t wait till next year to see that Wall.