Koska brothers out to top hobby stock
Off the track, Jason and Jareme Koska are a typical pair of brothers, but that all changes when the green flag falls.
The local drivers have been on each other’s heels at the Medicine Hat Speedway for the past four seasons. While they help each other out in the pits and hope to share the top two rungs in the hobby class when the checkered flag drops in September, Jason points out there are no friends on the racetrack.
“We’re competitors,” said Jason, who won Saturday’s hobby stock event to open the auto racing season. You don’t race him as hard as the other guys but you still race him hard.”
“I’ve hit him, he’s hit me, we’ve spun each other out,” added Jareme. “There’s no love lost out there that’s for sure.”
Jason and Jareme closed out last season in second and fourth place, respectively, though each come to the track this year with a strong chance at moving up.
Last year’s hobby stock champion, Connor Hirch, opted to move to the elite street stock — leaving a window of opportunity for the Koskas to take over the top.
“He had a really, really good car but he’s moved up now to a different class so it should be a little better now,” said Jason. “Me and my little brother are racing neck and neck it looks like, hopefully.”
While Jareme finished behind Trevor Stratton for fourth in last year’s standings, a mishap on opening day forced him off the track for a pivotal race day.
“I got spun out and I hit the wall and totaled off the whole front end,” said Jareme. “So I had to cut the whole front clip out and put a new one in, but I only missed one race weekend.”
Jason added he and his brother grew up watching their father race mini stocks at the speedway, but it wasn’t until about four years ago that they opted to try their own hands behind the wheel.
“When you’re younger you don’t really want to hang out with dad all the time, so we never got into it until now that we’re older,” said Jason. “It’s fun out here because you can have fun on the track and not get in trouble.
While they started out sharing Jason’s No. 71 car in their first season on the track, Jareme bought his own set of wheels for the next summer, giving them a chance to challenge each other.
Both vehicles bring a unique quality to the class as well. Jason’s white Chevy Malibu is the only hobby stock car with a standard transmission, while Jareme’s black No. 17 Chevy Nova is the lone set of wheels with a leaf spring suspension.
“Everybody else runs a coil spring car,” he said. “Other than that it’s pretty basic.”
Jason bested Trevor Stratton and Alysha Stratton in Saturday’s hobby stock main event to earn the season’s first checkered flag.
Hirch settled for second place behind Mitch Stovka in his elite street stock debut, while Ross Statham took third.
Reigning renegade truck champion Curtis Bigelow opened this season the same way he finished the last one, topping Tony Lavigne and Wayne Seaward to take top spot.
Danny Meier won the legends master pro event, beating Blake Erb to the checkered flag.
Racing returns to the Medicine Hat Speedway on June 10, with renegade trucks, IMCA modified, elite street and hobby stock vehicles taking to the track.