Jimmy Kouba Visits Eagle Valley For First Time and Goes to Victory Lane

By Greg Parent
Jim Falls, WI

With the three-race Memorial Day Weekend tour through western Wisconsin concluding at the Eagle Valley Speedway on Sunday night May 28, the weekend had some more first-time events continue to take place.  It was the first-ever appearance by the UMSS Traditional sprints and the first time non-winged sprint cars had ever raced at the Jim Falls track.  Jimmy Kouba of Byron, Minnesota has been racing sprint cars for 36 years and has over 40 career feature wins during that time, but it was his very first time racing at Eagle Valley. Kouba capped off a dominating performance in defeating his son Jake in a nonstop 20 lap run to park it in Rock Auto Victory Lane.  Kouba commented during his winner interview about the great shape the track was in and how much fun it was to drive his Traditional sprint up on the high-banked 3/8th mile oval.

Both Jimmy and Jake Kouba now have two Traditional sprint car feature wins this season, as they continue to keep the Kouba family batting average at a very respectable .500 in Traditional sprint car feature race action so far this season.  The Kouba combo have won four of the eight races.  For Jimmy Kouba it was his tenth career UMSS Traditional sprint car feature win, and it finished off a clean sweep on the evening for his team with both cars winning heat races and finishing first and second in the feature.  Jimmy was looking to equal his son in weekend wins, as Jake had won at Red Cedar on Friday.

The third race of the weekend had pared the field down to thirteen cars, but plenty of strong competitors were looking to notch their name in the winner column at Eagle Valley.  Following the Kouba clan heat race wins, Jimmy and Jake drew the front row for the main event.  2016 TSCS Rookie of the Year Ty Sampair and Cam Schafer would roll off from row two.  Jimmy Kouba beat Jake Kouba to the cushion up top on the opening lap and shot around the track at speed.  The race ran 20 laps caution-free, as Jimmy built up a bit of lead over Jake.  Jake stayed in touch with his dad, but he never got close enough to really make any kind of a serious bid to pass him.  A great battle for positions three through seven took place during a good share of the race, as those positions swapped hands numerous times.  In the end, 7th starter Jeremy Kerzman finished third ahead of 10th starter Mike Mueller and Blake Anderson.  Rounding out the top ten finishers was Jon Lewerer, Sampair who had run in third for several laps, Schafer, Rice Lake winner Scott Brandt and Brad Peterson.

Once again a special $100 GRP Motorsports mystery finishing position bonus was in place for the feature race.  Spectating at Eagle Valley was WISSOTA Modified driver Kevin “Buzzy” Adams who had won the mod feature at Rice Lake the previous night.  GRP had Buzzy draw the lucky number for the finishing position bonus.  Buzzy drew a ten.  As coincidence would have it, former modified racer turned Traditional sprint car driver Brad Peterson was the lucky recipient.  A smiling Brad Peterson indicated afterwards that he was going to go thank Buzzy for bringing him some good luck, as Brad’s car just wasn’t working as well as he had hoped during the feature.

The Traditional sprints will take a couple of weekends off to rest up after completing their one and only triple header weekend of racing with successful events at Red Cedar, Rice Lake and Eagle Valley.  A long weekend like this produced plenty of interesting tidbits and provided fans with some entertaining and exciting non-winged sprint car action.  The UMSS wishes to thank all drivers who participated in one or more events during the holiday weekend.  The Traditional sprint cars will return to action when they head out on their annual Northern Tour at the Hibbing Raceway and Proctor Speedway on June 17-18.  Keep tabs on all of the UMSS Traditional sprint car action by visiting our website at www.umsprints.com and clicking on the blue logo or by following us on Facebook.

UMSS TSCS Race Results – Eagle Valley Speedway May 28, 2017 (Race #8)

GRP Motorsports A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 2K-Jimmy Kouba[2]; 2. 6-Jake Kouba[1]; 3. 3K-Jeremy Kerzman[7]; 4. 87-Mike Mueller[10]; 5. 12X-Blake Anderson[8]; 6. 69S-Jon Lewerer[5]; 7. N1-Ty Sampair[3]; 8. 5C-Cam Schafer[4]; 9. 7-Scott Brandt[12]; 10. 93-Brad Peterson[9]; 11. 34-Denny Stordahl[11]; 12. 00-Scott Kobs[13]; 13. (DNF) 99-Bryan Roach[6].
Lap Leader: Jimmy Kouba 1-20. No cautions. Great battle positions 3-7 for much of the race.

Hoosier Racing Tire Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 2K-Jimmy Kouba[4]; 2. N1-Ty Sampair[6]; 3. 69S-Jon Lewerer[2]; 4. 3K-Jeremy Kerzman[3]; 5. 87-Mike Mueller[1]; 6. 7-Scott Brandt[5].
Lap Leader: Lewerer 1-5, Kouba 6-10. No cautions.

Rock Auto Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 6-Jake Kouba[5]; 2. 5C-Cam Schafer[3]; 3. 99-Bryan Roach[1]; 4. 12X-Blake Anderson[2]; 5. 93-Brad Peterson[4]; 6. 34-Denny Stordahl[6]; 7. (DNF) 00-Scott Kobs[7].
Lap Leaders: Roach 1-2, Schafer 3-7, Kouba 8-10. No cautions.