FORESTVILLE — Compared with some of the competitors weekly at Big Diamond Speedway, Jim Kost is a relative newcomer.
But the 48-year-old roadrunner driver from Jonestown in the Minersville area has seen plenty in a long racing career as a crew member and, for the past six years, driver of his own No. 126.
What Kost hasn’t seen is a championship, but he is the roadrunners’ current points leader.
“It’d be nice because it proves you had a good, consistent year,” he said of the title.
Consistency is Kost’s trademark anyway. Fifth in points in 2013 and third last year, Kost has used three straight wins this season to leap into the top spot.
Not bad for the driver of a Chevrolet Monte Carlo with an aging engine.
And that has Kost just a bit nervous.
“I don’t like to talk about it, but there’s a lot of races on this motor,” he said, mentioning that it has been a long time since the engine, built by Jason Leindecker, Center Valley, has been reconditioned.
He said, “I just never did. It was always good. Even this year, it should have been done, but I waited too long.”
Instead, Kost simply straps into his roadrunner, bought years ago from current rival Elvin Brennan, and keeps racing.
Brennan is one of Kost’s many friends, the product of Kost’s assistance of Pottsville’s Tom Brennan during the latter’s racing career.
“I was building an enduro car and just never finished it,” Kost
said. “Elvin said, ‘The one there? Hey, if you want to race, I’ll buy the car from you and you can race.’ ”
Kost drove for the Forestville resident for a couple of years and then bought the current No. 126 from him.
Kost stores the race car with Llewellyn’s Kevin Beach, a 358 modified racer who has received Kost’s assistance over the years.
Kost said he also is attempting to help rebuild Joey Brennan’s car after that roadrunner was damaged in an early season crash.
“This is a fun division for everybody,” Kost said of the roadrunners. “Pretty much everybody gets along good and helps each other out.”
As for Kost’s own car, the assessment is simple.
“This car works,” he said. “It’s bent up a bit, but it’s working still.”
Kost, a Passaic, New Jersey, native who moved to the area when he was 5 years old, is also still racing. The Minersville Area High School graduate competed briefly many years ago before he stopped to support his family.
Now back on the track, Kost credits a nephew, Jarrod Kost, for day-to-day help with the No. 126. In return, Kost is hoping to put him in a car at Big Diamond.
Jarrod is another potential racer that Kost is trying to assist, even as Kost is attempting to clear his own hurdle and win a championship.
But Kost, who works as a bricklayer, isn’t cursing the racing gods that the title hasn’t happened yet. His turn simply hasn’t come.
“A lot of guys have good years once in a while,” he said. “You finish, third, fourth, fifth in points. Like I said, I’m consistent when I run all year.”
That’s why Kost is concerned about the life of his car’s engine, which Kost said is one of the first built by Leindecker. Now that name adorns the hoods and engine covers of cars in all three regular classes at Big Diamond.
“It’s down on power compared to some of the other guys,” Kost said of his own engine. “You can always use more (power). I keep telling that to the motor guy. I have a new one getting built and I keep telling him.
“He said, ‘What do you want to do, lap the field?’
“I said, ‘No, but the 555 (Elvin Brennan) is always getting to my bumper at the end of the race. If I can get ahead, I don’t have to worry about the guy bumping me a little bit.”
Today’s races
Where: Big Diamond Speedway, Forestville
When: 8:15 p.m. Gates open at 5:45 p.m.
Program: 358 modifieds (regular 35-lap feature, completion of suspended 25-lap feature from June 12), sportsmen (20-lap feature), roadrunners (20-lap feature), street stocks (20-lap feature)
Admission: General admission, $15; senior citizens, $12; active military with identification and children ages 12 and under, free.