7/23/2015
Rick Kobs Completes Triple Play With Traditional Sprint Win at Red Cedar
Rick Kobs has won in every type of race car he has driven over the years, but until Thursday night July 23 at the Red Cedar Speedway, Kobs had not won in a Traditional non-winged sprint car. He can now cross that off his "bucket List" of accomplishments, as Kobs drove to victory over two-time series champion Rob Caho, Jr. during the initial appearance of the UMSS Traditional Sprint Car Series at the Dunn County Fairgrounds track. Kobs also became the first driver to win in all three UMSS divisions (winged, traditional and micro sprints). Although he certainly has not been a regular competitor at Red Cedar for many years, from racing in various stock car divisions at the track during his nearly 30 years of racing, Kobs had more laps than any other non-winged sprint car driver and was familiar with Rock Auto Victory Lane. It showed, as he drove a solid race and led 24 of the 25 laps in the feature.
It was a fantastic summer evening for racing at Menomonie during the Dunn County Fair. A field of (12) Traditional sprints were on hand to do battle on the 1/3 mile oval. The Traditional sprints ran the winged sprint race format with two heats races, two challenge races and a 25 lap feature. Heat race wins went to Kobs and Mike Mueller. Challenge race victories were garnered by Kobs and Neal Matuska. The top four drivers in passing and finishing points from the double round of qualifiers redrew for the first four starting spots during the popular driver autograph session at intermission. It would by Mueller and Kobs on the front row with Caho and Matuska in row two.
Kobs bolted to the early lead up on the cushion, as drivers jockeyed for positions behind him. Chase Viebrock quickly went from sixth to second just a couple of laps into the race. Caho ran third after three laps with Jimmy Kouba capturing fourth three laps later. The lone caution blinked on with 16 laps scored when Blake Anderson blew his engine entering turn one a short distance in front of the leaders and dumped out a bunch of oil in the process. Kobs got slowed up, but Viebrock needed to pitch his car sideways to avoid crashing into Kobs and slid to a stop in the oil. Under UMSS rules, if a car stops on the track for any reason besides a red flag or safety call by an official, the car must go to the tail of the field on the restart. A super bad break for the young driver who was trying to avoid a crash, but officials had to enforce the rule and Chase restarted 11th.
Caho got past Kobs coming off turn four following the restart to lead lap 17, but Kobs regained the lead entering turn one and went on to lead the remaining eight laps for the win. Caho finished second ahead of Jimmy Kouba, James Giossi and all the way back up to fifth from 11th in the final nine laps was Viebrock. Matuska, Jake Kouba, Mueller, Kevin Bradwell and Jori Hughes completed the ten cars that finished. Jake Hendrickson and Anderson did not finish. Everything was coming up in threes for Rick Kobs on this night, as he completed a clean sweep with three wins (heat, challenge and feature), has won in all three UMSS divisions now, and he earned $300 for the win during the first of three races for the Traditional sprint cars for the weekend July 23-25 at Red Cedar Speedway, St. Croix Valley Raceway and Rice Lake Speedway.
Traditional Sprint Car Series Race Results - Red Cedar Speedway July 23, 2015 (Race #14)
GRP Motorsports A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 81-Rick Kobs[2]; 2. 78-Rob Caho Jr[3]; 3. 2K-Jimmy Kouba[5]; 4. 11-James Giossi[7]; 5. 50-Chase Viebrock[6]; 6. 48-Neal Matuska[4]; 7. 6-Jake Kouba[11]; 8. 87-Mike Mueller[1]; 9. 95-Kevin Bradwell[8]; 10. 21J-Jori Hughes[9]; 11. (DNF) 23-Jake Hendrickson[10]; 12. (DNF) KA1-Blake Anderson[12]
Lap Leaders: Kobs 1-16, Caho 17, Kobs 18-25. Cautions: (1) with 16 laps in for KA1 blown engine turn 1. 50 also spun in oil to avoid crashing into the 81 and had to tag the tail on the restart under UMSS rules.
Hoosier Racing Tire Challenge Race 1 (8 Laps): 1. 81-Rick Kobs[5]; 2. 50-Chase Viebrock[2]; 3. 78-Rob Caho Jr[4]; 4. 95-Kevin Bradwell[3]; 5. 21J-Jori Hughes[1]; DNS KA1-Blake Anderson
Lap Leaders: Viebrock 1-6, Kobs 7-8. No cautions.
Driverwebsites.com Challenge Race 2 (8 Laps): 1. 48-Neal Matuska[4]; 2. 87-Mike Mueller[5]; 3. 11-James Giossi[2]; 4. 2K-Jimmy Kouba[3]; 5. 6-Jake Kouba[6]; 6. 23-Jake Hendrickson[1]
Lap Leaders: Giossi 1-4, Matuska 5-8. No cautions.
Track Rat Photos Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. 81-Rick Kobs[3]; 2. 48-Neal Matuska[1]; 3. 95-Kevin Bradwell[2]; 4. 11-James Giossi[4]; 5. 21J-Jori Hughes[5]; DNS 6-Jake Kouba
Lap Leaders: Matuska 1, Kobs 2-6. No cautions.
Sprintsource.com Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. 87-Mike Mueller[1]; 2. 78-Rob Caho Jr[2]; 3. 2K-Jimmy Kouba[5]; 4. 50-Chase Viebrock[4]; 5. 23-Jake Hendrickson[6]; 6. KA1-Blake Anderson[3]
Lap Leader: Mueller 1-6. No cautions.
Victory Lane photo courtesy of Vince Peterson at Track Rat Photos.
Article Credit: Greg Parent, UMSS Media Director
