COLUMBUS, Ohio – JEGS Mail Order driver Mike Coughlin drove to a semifinal finish in the Top Sportsman class during the final rounds of yesterdays Division 3 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at National Trail Raceway. Racing at his home track, Coughlin took his JEGS.com Cobalt to round four of eliminations, before losing a close race against reigning Division 3 Top Sportsman champ Don Peden. Coughlin posted a 7.29-second elapsed time on his pre-race dial-in of 7.24 while Peden ran a 7.17 on his 7.15 dial for the victory. COLUMBUS, Ohio – JEGS Mail Order driver Mike Coughlin drove to a semifinal finish in the Top Sportsman class during the final rounds of yesterdays Division 3 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at National Trail Raceway. Racing at his home track, Coughlin took his JEGS.com Cobalt to round four of eliminations, before losing a close race against reigning Division 3 Top Sportsman champ Don Peden. Coughlin posted a 7.29-second elapsed time on his pre-race dial-in of 7.24 while Peden ran a 7.17 on his 7.15 dial for the victory.

“I gave it my best shot, but just came up a little short,” said Coughlin. “We've spent a lot of time working on this new car lately and I'm really happy with the way it ran. It was very consistent all weekend which is really saying something because we ran under a lot of different track conditions. No matter what the weather was doing, the car didn't vary much from run to run.”

Coughlin, the winner of the Top Sportsman title earlier this year at the JEGS NHRA Northern SPORTSnationals in Columbus, qualified ninth in the 32-car field with a 7.27 elapsed time. In eliminations, he defeated Rod Burgoyne, Michael Donato, and Marvin Blaney before facing Peden in the final four. Qualifying for the event, which is the sixth and final Division 3 Lucas event of the 2006 season, was postponed on Saturday due to rain. Competitors were given an additional qualifying run on Sunday morning, before the start of eliminations.