Four-time champ Jeg braces for race day; brother Troy loses close one in Pro Mod
Four-time champ Jeg braces for race day; brother Troy loses close one in Pro Mod HOUSTON (April 10) -- Pro Stock world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. will begin his quest for another Houston trophy Sunday against Bob Yonke after qualifying fourth in the field with a 6.555 at 211.63 mph. Coughlin posted his best pass in Saturday's final round of qualifying, which took place later than expected due to rain. "The first three rounds were extremely good for us but we found something in between Q3 and Q4 so we changed out the clutch unit and the car was a completely different animal," Jeg said. "There is definitely a lot more in there so we'll tune it up for tomorrow and give it a run." Coughlin will start eliminations against Texan Yonke, who qualified 13th with a 6.579 at 210.31 mph. "They're calling for warmer temperatures so we may need to be craftier with what we're doing," Coughlin said. "It'll be fun racing Bob, who is an old friend from our Sportsman days. He's a good, clean driver and and know he'll give me a good race." The Houston race came to an end for older brother Troy, who lost a tight contest to Rick Stivers in Round 1 of Pro Mod Saturday evening. After qualifying ninth with a 5.943 at 238.60 mph in his JEGS.com '68 Chevrolet Camaro, Troy and No. 8 qualifier Stivers pushed each other hard. The two men left the starting line with nearly identical reaction times -- .072 for Stivers and .075 for Troy -- and raced in each other's shadows for most of the way down the track. But Stivers had the better car on the day and pulled away to win with a 6.041 at 211.43 mph to Troy's 6.071 at 231.75 mph. "We're coming along, we're getting better," Troy said. "It would have been nice to make that last qualifier to get a little bit closer from a driving and tune-up standpoint but the good Lord puts the water on the ground for a reason. We just wanted to give the guys something more to work with so we could go into the first round a little closer to where we wanted to be. "We're excited. We're going to go back rebuild our stuff and come back for the next race. We'll make a couple of test laps before to make sure we have all our ducks in a row, and just make sure we are sharper at everything." The next stop on the 10-race Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series is April 30-May 2 in Saint Louis. Pro Stock eliminations begin at 11 a.m. CST Sunday. --30-- Information regarding JEGS Mail Order can be found at _www.jegs.com_ (http://www.jegs.com/) and for media/fan resources checkout _www.teamjegs.com_ (http://www.teamjegs.com/) . Media Contact: Scott "Woody" Woodruff JEGS, Director of Media & Motorsports Office: 800.345.4545 (#3, ext 412) Mobile: 614.595.1820 Fax: 740.362.5507 Email: _jegspr@aol.com_ (mailto:jegspr@aol.com) -or- _scott.woodruff@jegs.com_ (mailto:scott.woodruff@jegs.com)