Brian Sobus has a fever. And the only prescription?

More racing.

“Racing is an incurable disease,” the 21-year-old driver from Auburn said. “Anybody that starts racing never seems to be able to quit.”

Forget quitting. Sobus doesn't show any signs of even slowing down.

With a second-place finish in last Saturday's Jake's Automotive 30-lap feature at Oswego Speedway, Sobus jumped into a tie for second overall in the SBS Series Hoosier PowerAde Standings with 1,048 points - just 36 behind leader Russ Brown #- with the season finale looming tonight at 6 p.m.

It's a long way to come in just a few short years, considering the only thing he had raced prior were go-karts. Now, he hits 120 miles per hour without batting an eyelash.

“When I first started, I was like, ‘Wow, all this power,'” Sobus said. “Now, it's like, ‘Man, can't this thing go any faster?' Speed is all relative. You don't feel like you're going fast.”

After all, speed is what drew Sobus to racing in the first place.

At just 5 years old, Sobus and his grandfather used to make the trip to Oswego Speedway “religiously.” At first it was just about the camping trips. But as he got older he caught the racing bug.

“It's just the speed,” he said, recalling how his interest was sparked. “And they're loud and really fast. It was just really exciting.”

Too young to climb behind the wheel at Oswego, Sobus found a more suitable way to hit the road - racing go-karts at Frozen Ocean at the age of 14.

After a few years, Sobus was ready to turn in his training wheels, and in 2004 he joined the circuit at Oswego. Predictably, the transition wasn't easy. “It's something I didn't just pick up,” Sobus said. “It took me probably three or four weeks to get used to the speed and power difference. By the second half of the season I finally got competitive, running in the middle of the pack mostly.”

The next year - with a new and improved car - Sobus started to find his groove. He was consistently in the top 10 and posted several top-5 finishes. Then, he made his first trip to victory lane in 2006.

“It was such a rush, I'll never forget it,” Sobus said. “I was nervous the whole time. I was being chased by (Auburn native) Dave Gruel the whole time. I could see he was right behind me, and I was just hoping he wasn't going to go blowing by me.”

But wins don't just happen.

Sobus and his team - his mother and father, plus anyone else who might wander into the garage looking to help - routinely spend at least three nights a week in the garage preparing for the Saturday night races.

They put the car on jack stands, strip all the body panels off, remove every single nut and bolt to make sure nothing is bent, tighten everything down, lube all the grease fittings, change the oil, check the valves, clean the cockpit, and perform general engine maintenance.

That's on a good week.

“It's at least 20 hours on an easy week,” Sobus said. “That's if everything went perfect.”

If there was a wreck during the race, kiss those 20 hours goodbye.

“Some weeks we'll put more than 40 or 50 hours in the garage working,” he said. “We work all night every night until like one in the morning.”

Toss in a full-time job at CNY Power Equipment - one of Sobus' sponsors - and that doesn't leave much time for anything else.

But that's just find with him.

“It's just a lot of fun,” Sobus said. “The competition is what drives me. You're busting your butt all week so you can go out there and beat them on the track.”

Sometimes winning is the best medicine.