TROY COUGHLIN GUNNING FOR NHRA PRO MOD
Mon, 2008-01-21 06:50
After spending a year trying to find an agreeable tune-up for his radical
twin-turbo-charged Pro Mod entry, veteran racer Troy Coughlin has returned his
JEGS.com Pontiac GTO to a conventional super-charged configuration so he can
chase race trophies in earnest from the start of the drag racing season.
Coughlin will keep his turbo dreams alive, but his frustrating struggle to find success with the little-used turbo combination prompted him to make the switch for the 2008 Pro Mod Challenge series.
"We're ready to get back to winning races," said Coughlin, a former national event winner in the popular class. "We have an incredible team here and these guys all sacrificed a year to try and figure out the turbo car. It's time for us to get back out there and have some fun. We have all the people, parts, and pieces in place to be successful from the start. After spending a year trying to find an agreeable tune-up for his radical twin-turbo-charged Pro Mod entry, veteran racer Troy Coughlin has returned his JEGS.com Pontiac GTO to a conventional super-charged configuration so he can chase race trophies in earnest from the start of the drag racing season.
Coughlin will keep his turbo dreams alive, but his frustrating struggle to find success with the little-used turbo combination prompted him to make the switch for the 2008 Pro Mod Challenge series.
"We're ready to get back to winning races," said Coughlin, a former national event winner in the popular class. "We have an incredible team here and these guys all sacrificed a year to try and figure out the turbo car. It's time for us to get back out there and have some fun. We have all the people, parts, and pieces in place to be successful from the start.
"This is a top-three team. There's no reason to think we won't contend for every trophy. We purchased a pair of tried-and-true Brad Anderson 526 Hemis and we're going to test extensively with Brad and his guys before Gainesville so that we're completely up to speed when the schedule starts. We want to make sure everything is ready to go."
Coughlin still believes his twin-turbo experiment will pay dividends down the road. For the time being, he's hired noted turbo expert Kenny Duttweiler to work on the powerplants his team debuted in 2007. If things go well, Team JEGS could have two very different racecars on its hands in the near future.
"Kenny's the premiere turbo guy in the country," said Coughlin, a multiple event winner in the Pro Stock class. "We sent him all our stuff as soon as the '07 season was over and right away he found some things he thought were slowing us down. The main issue we had was keeping the engines together. We were making heaps of horsepower; we just had trouble with the engines hurting themselves during runs.
"I'm confident Kenny will get us straightened out and I still very much believe in the turbo configuration. If Kenny says it's ready at any point, we'll bring it out and test it right away to see how it performs. It's not out of the realm of possibility to have two Pontiacs in our stable. We'll just have to see where we are at that point."
For now, the main emphasis for Coughlin and crew will be winning races. The Pro Mod Challenge series, which is sponsored in part by JEGS Mail Order, begins March 13-16 with the 39th annual ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in central Florida.
Coughlin will keep his turbo dreams alive, but his frustrating struggle to find success with the little-used turbo combination prompted him to make the switch for the 2008 Pro Mod Challenge series.
"We're ready to get back to winning races," said Coughlin, a former national event winner in the popular class. "We have an incredible team here and these guys all sacrificed a year to try and figure out the turbo car. It's time for us to get back out there and have some fun. We have all the people, parts, and pieces in place to be successful from the start. After spending a year trying to find an agreeable tune-up for his radical twin-turbo-charged Pro Mod entry, veteran racer Troy Coughlin has returned his JEGS.com Pontiac GTO to a conventional super-charged configuration so he can chase race trophies in earnest from the start of the drag racing season.
Coughlin will keep his turbo dreams alive, but his frustrating struggle to find success with the little-used turbo combination prompted him to make the switch for the 2008 Pro Mod Challenge series.
"We're ready to get back to winning races," said Coughlin, a former national event winner in the popular class. "We have an incredible team here and these guys all sacrificed a year to try and figure out the turbo car. It's time for us to get back out there and have some fun. We have all the people, parts, and pieces in place to be successful from the start.
"This is a top-three team. There's no reason to think we won't contend for every trophy. We purchased a pair of tried-and-true Brad Anderson 526 Hemis and we're going to test extensively with Brad and his guys before Gainesville so that we're completely up to speed when the schedule starts. We want to make sure everything is ready to go."
Coughlin still believes his twin-turbo experiment will pay dividends down the road. For the time being, he's hired noted turbo expert Kenny Duttweiler to work on the powerplants his team debuted in 2007. If things go well, Team JEGS could have two very different racecars on its hands in the near future.
"Kenny's the premiere turbo guy in the country," said Coughlin, a multiple event winner in the Pro Stock class. "We sent him all our stuff as soon as the '07 season was over and right away he found some things he thought were slowing us down. The main issue we had was keeping the engines together. We were making heaps of horsepower; we just had trouble with the engines hurting themselves during runs.
"I'm confident Kenny will get us straightened out and I still very much believe in the turbo configuration. If Kenny says it's ready at any point, we'll bring it out and test it right away to see how it performs. It's not out of the realm of possibility to have two Pontiacs in our stable. We'll just have to see where we are at that point."
For now, the main emphasis for Coughlin and crew will be winning races. The Pro Mod Challenge series, which is sponsored in part by JEGS Mail Order, begins March 13-16 with the 39th annual ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in central Florida.
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