Bob Kosiski
By Mark Woods
Omaha, Neb. - In Sunset Speedway’s 19-year-old history, 42-year-old Bob Kosiski is rightfully considered the best overall driver ever to compete there.
This doesn’t mean someone may not come along and break the multiple records Bob has scorched over the past few years or that past competitors such as Jim Wyman or Bud Burdick don’t consider the same high honors, which they do.
But “King Robert’s” display of driving prowess on the track and his glowing statistics on paper, confirm that he’s number one, at least at Sunset Speedway.
It all started on October 15, 1934, when Robert Kosiskie (then spelled with an “E” at the end) was born in Omaha, Neb., to Joseph and Katherine Kosiskie. Bob grew up in a family of four brothers and was one of the “SOB’s” (South Omaha Boys), an area long known for its ethnic jokes (Polish descent) and its superiority in automobile repair, of which Bob excelled in both categories; He was a master mechanic and Polish.
In 1950, at the age of 16, Bob worked part-time at the auto repair shop that his father owned and still operates at 4709 L Street in Omaha. At that time, with sporadic appearances at a small track in Central City, Neb., Bob first started dabbling in auto racing – a sport that locally got its start after World War II in 1948.
“I guess I should thank my brother-in-law Stan Williams,” Kosiski mentioned. “He drove at Central City every weekend but didn’t show up one time, so I hopped in and drove his car that night. I’ve been hooked on racing ever since.”
It was after graduation from South Omaha High School in 1952 at the age of 18 that Bob really started taking the sport seriously.
In the next five years, Bob got in as much racing as possible, at such ovals as Playland and Riverside in Council Bluffs, Capital Beach in Lincoln, Grandview in Bellevue and Norfolk. He drove a 1932 Ford racer (33) that his father owned.
In March of 1957, he married his high school and neighborhood sweetheart, whose brother drove a racecar for his father. Shortly after his marriage, Bob spent a two-year stint in the service.
Bob, anxious to get back to racing, went all the way by driving a new 1959 Thunderbird on the International Motor Contest Association circuit, considered the NASCAR of the Midwest, and raced with such notables as Ramo Stott, Ernie Derr, Johnny Beauchamp, Don White and Nebraska’s Bob Burdick in 1959 and 1960.
During his two-year IMCA stay, he finished fifth and eighth respectively in the national point standings and won the Wisconsin and Kansas State Fair races. He also scored a victory in the 100-lap race at the Minnesota State Fair at which time he set numerous speed records for a half-mile dirt track on August 29, 1960.
“That was that stands out the most,” Bob recalls. “I beat both Ernie Derr and Ramo Stott, who I have the upmost respect for. Yep, that was the most memorable.”
Kosiski even went big time, by becoming a NASCAR Driver and entering the 1960 Daytona 500. The rear end on his Thunderbird went out and he would not finish the marathon event.
Life was great and Bob was on his way to national stardom, when tragedy struck on September 12, 1960.
Joe Kosiskie, Bob’s father, was killed in a two-car auto accident, 11 miles south of Rock Rapids, Iowa on Highway 75. He was a passenger in a truck driven by Bob and accompanied by Bob’s 16-year-old brother, Tom. The Kosiskie’s were returning to Omaha after a three-day racing tour in South Dakota with Bob’s Thunderbird in tow.
The accident put a damper, and a set-back, on Bob’s path to the big-time. The death, Bob took hard and it almost squelched his zest for racing.
In 1961, Bob didn’t travel outside of Omaha much, instead, deciding to campaign at Sunset Speedway, which had opened four years earlier and was running the old coupe body racers.
He won his first “official” Sunset Speedway feature on August 21, 1961.
Bob Kosiski drove this 1934 Dodge coupe to numerous victories and track championships. - Lee Ackerman Collection
Between 1963 and 1966, he drove a 1934 Dodge coupe (53) for Ernie Matz and with it, won the 165 Nebraska State Fair race and his first point’s championship at both Council Bluffs (Playland) and Omaha (Sunset) in 1966.
Bob had been lucky and had avoided any major mishaps during his weekly racing wars. All that would change on Memorial Day Weekend 1969.
Lyle Kline, the new owner of Sunset Speedway, had lengthened the straight aways over the off-season and during practice laps, Bob’s accelerator on his 1966 Chevelle stuck, sending the veteran over the guard rail and down the embankment on the south turn.
Bob was rushed to a nearby hospital with a bruised kidney, two crack vertebrae in his back and three cracked ribs. The doctors said he would be sidelined for at least six weeks. But Kosiski was back – three weeks later to be voted most popular driver by the fans at season’s end.
Some personal Sunset Speedway milestones set by Kosiski are; winning his 25th career feature (September 21, 1970), voted most popular driver (1969 & 1971), winning a July 4th 100-lap event (1972), won his 50th feature (August 11, 1974) and the second annual $5,000 Spring Invitational (1974).
Bob Kosiski is joined by starter Woody Brinkman after win at the 1973 Nebraska State Fair. - Lee Ackerman Collection
In 1975, he won the Lincoln-Omaha Challenge, his fifth straight Nebraska State Fair victory and possible his most remarkable achievement; his eighth Sunset Speedway track championship and his fifth in a row.
And who are Bob’s strongest Sunset challengers? “I’d have to say my toughest competitors were Bud Burdick, Jim Wyman and Bill Wrich,” Bob said, and adding, “Today, I would have to say Kent Tucker and Bill Martin are my toughest.”
Bob now had 63 career feature victories at Sunset and now finds a most unusual competitor on the track – his 18-year-old son Joe, who is in his first year of driving. Another son, 16-year-old Steve, has indicated an interest in driving.
1977 will mark Bob’s silver anniversary in racing – 25 years – and some feel it may be Bob’s last although only Bob holds that answer. He would like more time to help his sons start their racing careers and when retirement comes, one thing is certain; his outstanding career will be long remembered.
Bob Kosiski Timeline -
1961 – 1st feature win (August 21, 1961)
1962 - One feature win – 6th in points
1964 - Two feature wins – 2nd in points (Jim Wyman)
1965 – Two feature wins – 3rd in points
1966 – Two feature wins – 1st track championship
1967 – Seven feature wins – 2nd track championship
1968 – Seven feature wins – 3rd track championship
1969 – One feature win – Voted most popular driver
1970 – Two feature wins –2nd in points (Bud Burdick)
1971 – Three feature wins – 4th track championship
1972 – Six feature wins – 5th track championship
1973 – Eight feature wins – 6th track championship
1974 – Eight feature wins – 7th track championship
1975 – Seven feature wins – 8th track championship
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