NMCA champ Coughlin off and running at Route 66 Raceway

Racing the same JEGS.com Pontiac GXP he drove to the 2009 Pro Street title, multiple event wins, and two world records, Coughlin beat Hector Laracuente in the opening session with a tire-spinning 6.94 to Laracuente’s 7.09.

“It’s great to get that first round win but we’re still a bit behind with this new engine combo, as our elapsed times indicate,” Coughlin said. “We’re making moves in the right direction but we haven’t found that happy place just yet.”

Coughlin qualified seventh in the 16-car field with a 6.78 at 221 mph.

“We tested after the last event and we were very light on the clutch,” Coughlin said. “We put a hundred pounds in there, made another hit, and the data was exactly the same. After adding even more clutch and making a couple more hits it was still showing us the same thing so we took everything apart and discovered some broken components.

“Everything was sent back to the manufacturer for a tune-up and we had high hopes coming into Chicago but we broke the same stuff again in Q1, so we had to make even more repairs. Since then we’ve been on both sides of the set-up, slipping through three runs and spinning through the other two, so we’re closing in on what it wants. Hopefully, we’ll find it by tomorrow morning.”

Eliminations continue Sunday morning at 9 a.m. CDT.

–30–

Information regarding JEGS Mail Order can be found at www.jegs.com and for media/fan resources checkout www.teamjegs.com .