It hasn’t taken long for Todd Patterson to find the sweet spot in the new COPO Camaro he is driving in Stock Eliminator.

The iconic Comp racer has quickly taken to the 2013 COPO, taking it to the No. 1 qualifier spot in its first race (at a LODRS points meet in Topeka) just days after it was delivered to Bob Tyler, who owns the sparkling new ride.

Patterson will campaign the car for the next two seasons and things already went impressively well at the second race for the COPO Camaro as well.

He qualified No. 12 overall in Stock Eliminator at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, going an outstanding 9.534 on a 10.60 index (-1.066).

It helped lead him all the way to the finals in CC/SA where he went red by .008 in a hard-luck loss to the talented Dave Connolly.

Still, you would be hard-pressed to hear any complaints from Patterson, who has had astounding results in a very short time in a new car that remains relatively unchanged from the factory.

“This has been real good. We couldn’t be more pleased with how the car has been running,” Patterson said. “It’s still got the stock GM tune-up just like it came with when we picked it up two weeks ago. We’ve made some changes to the suspension and, so far, we couldn’t be happier.”

Patterson ripped off a pair of 9.534s, going as fast as 123.37 mph in the COPO. Despite going red in the final, Patterson, considered a master of the small block, still went 9.54 at 121 mph.

It’s undoubtedly been an adjustment for Patterson after succeeding in Comp and with faster Super Stock cars, but he certainly seems to be onto something special in the COPO Camaro.

“Fortunately for me, my son had a C-Stock automatic Camaro two years ago, so I kind of had a general feel for what the difference would be,” Patterson said.

“But I come out of my Super Mod car going 1.13 in the 60-foot and I’m going 1.30 in this car, so there’s definitely a different feel. There’s a lot more lift to the front end when you launch, but it’s fun.”

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