Earlier this season, stock car driver Troy Jerovetz couldn’t catch a lucky break. Instead, he found engine breaks. However, with a new KS Engineering power plant, he’s been on a tear, winning races left and right.
“It had been one of those mechanical failure type of years,” Jerovetz, of Iowa Falls, Iowa, said. “We just had bad luck — two blown engines. One was a cam failure, and the other a rod bolt failure. It was heartbreaking to be out of competition, but there is nothing you can do about those situations.”
Right after Kevin Stoa, of KS Engineering, delivered Jerovetz a new engine, Jerovetz has been charging to the front, seemingly making up for lost time.
In his first race on the power plant, he went from 17th to second at the July 17 $10,000-to-win show at 141 Speedway in Maribel, Wisconsin.
“I was competitive, because the new engine had just a little more power than the last one, and that made the difference,” said Jerovetz. “My previous engine was tired from 35 to 40 nights of racing, and it was the spare to the first engine that blew.”
Two days later, he won at Hancock County Speedway in Britt, Iowa. Last Saturday, he visited victory lane at Iowa’s Boone Speedway for the Hunting with Heroes Salute to Veterans Tour race (pictured).
“Winning the Salute to Veterans feature ranks up there with my top wins,” Jerovetz said. “It is a race that has special meaning. It commemorates veterans. It honors everything they have done for us.”
With some pep in his step, Troy Jerovetz looks to continue his hot streak. This Friday he plans to return to Hancock County Speedway and on Saturday Boone Speedway. The following weekend he hopes to add a trophy from Marshalltown Speedway in Iowa.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
