9/9/2016
Jake Kouba Wins TSCS Part of Tabor Memorial at Princeton
Coming into the championship weekend, some drivers were battling for titles while some drivers were looking for their first TSCS win of the season. Mission accomplished for young Jake Kouba of Minneapolis regarding the latter, as Jake picked up his first Traditional Sprint Car Series victory in 2016 leading all the way to Rock Auto Victory Lane. The race only ran 22 laps, as light rain began falling during the feature and flagman Shaun Cimfl checkered it a few laps early. Kouba had the field covered nonetheless for the $534 payday. It was his third career TSCS win.
A solid field of (20) UMSS Traditional sprint cars signed into the pits to take part in their portion of the 5th Annual Davey Tabor Memorial. Three heats were run with 2014 TSCS Champion Cam Schafer, 2016 GRP Motorsports Rookie of the Year Ty Sampair, and Jake Kouba picking up the wins. Sampair was the high point driver following the heats and drew the number 4, putting the young Somerset, Wisconsin racer outside of row two for the feature. Jake Kouba drew the pole with rookie Kyle Wehking to his outside. Schafer would start inside second row. Kevin Bradwell injured a motor during warm-ups and was done for the night, so nineteen cars were set to take the green flag for their scheduled 25 lap feature race.
Jake Kouba wasted little time setting a strong pace up front at the drop of the green. Sampair quickly moved to second with Scott Brandt in third. The laps clicked off under the green around the fast little 1/4 mile bullring. Part way into the race, light rain began falling but did not seem to hamper the drivers to any great degree. Sampair generally stayed close to Kouba, pulling right up on his rear nerf bar on several occasions only to see Kouba stretch it out again. Past the halfway mark, a good battle developed for third between Scott Brandt and James Giossi with Jeremy Kerzman, Mike Mueller and Rick Kobs not far behind them. Suddenly the white flag appeared with 21 laps in the books and the light rain persisting. Kouba won by several car lengths over Sampair. Brandt, Giossi and Kerzman completed the top five. Mueller, Kobs, Jimmy Kouba, Mike Walters and Schafer rounded out the top ten. Eighteen of the nineteen starters finished with only a couple of cars a lap down.
The Traditional sprints were then set to move on to the Cedar Lake Speedway the following night to finish out the full-point shows for their 2016 racing season. Two non-point shows were slated after Cedar Lake, but the chase for the championship and the GRP Motorsports High Five Championship Bonus would come down to the final night. As mentioned earlier, Ty Sampair locked up the 2016 GRP Motorsports TSCS Rookie of the Year title with his solid second place finish at Princeton which equaled his best finish of the season at Chateau. For news and other information, race fans can check out the Traditional Sprint Car Series website at www.umsprints.com by clicking on the blue logo or follow us on Facebook.
UMSS TSCS Race Results - Princeton Speedway September 9, 2016 (Race #21)
5th Annual Davey Tabor Memorial
Margaret Tabor & GRP Motorsports 5th Annual Davey Tabor Memorial Feature (22 Laps): 1. 6-Jake Kouba[1]; 2. N1-Ty Sampair[4]; 3. 7B-Scott Brandt[5]; 4. 11-James Giossi[8]; 5. 3K-Jeremy Kerzman[7]; 6. 87-Mike Mueller[6]; 7. 81-Rick Kobs[9]; 8. 2K-Jimmy Kouba[13]; 9. 27-Mike Walters[10]; 10. 14-Cam Schafer[3]; 11. 29-Hunter Custer[11]; 12. 69S-Jon Lewerer[18]; 13. 15E-Caley Emerson[19]; 14. 55-Joseph Kouba[17]; 15. 6L-Joe Lallier[15]; 16. 48-Neal Matuska[16]; 17. 99-Bryan Roach[12]; 18. 12W-Kyle Wehking[2]; 19. (DNF) 12-Johnny Parsons III[14]; (DNS) 95-Kevin Bradwell
Lap Leaders: Jake Kouba 1-22. No cautions. Race ended at 22 laps with light rain falling.
Meeks Video Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 14-Cam Schafer[1]; 2. 12W-Kyle Wehking[3]; 3. 87-Mike Mueller[5]; 4. 11-James Giossi[7]; 5. 99-Bryan Roach[6]; 6. 55-Joseph Kouba[2]; 7. 69S-Jon Lewerer[4]
Lap Leader: Schafer 1-10. Cautions: (1) yellow for 55 spin turn 2 on opening lap.
Track Rat Photos Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. N1-Ty Sampair[3]; 2. 81-Rick Kobs[1]; 3. 27-Mike Walters[2]; 4. 29-Hunter Custer[5]; 5. 2K-Jimmy Kouba[6]; 6. 48-Neal Matuska[4]
Lap Leader: Sampair 1-10. No cautions.
Hoosier Racing Tire Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 6-Jake Kouba[1]; 2. 7B-Scott Brandt[3]; 3. 3K-Jeremy Kerzman[5]; 4. 12-Johnny Parsons III[2]; 5. 6L-Joe Lallier[4]; 6. 15E-Caley Emerson[6]; (DNS) 95-Kevin Bradwell
Lap Leader: Jake Kouba 1-10. No cautions. 95 Bradwell scratched for the evening during warm ups when engine had no oil pressure.
Rock Auto Victory Lane photo courtesy of Vince Peterson at Track Rat Photos.
Article Credit: Greg Parent, UMSS Media Director
