Troy Coughlin Ends Pro Mod Season Fourth

Troy Coughlin ends Pro Mod season fourth

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 1, 2010: Troy Coughlin accomplished much in the JEGS Camaro during the 2010 Get Screened America Pro Mod Series season.

He made the field in every Pro Mod race this season, and was the only driver to accomplish that feat. Coughlin also finished the season in fourth place in the standings, again an accomplishment for a nitrous-powered car that produced less horsepower than his supercharged competitors.

"The JEGS.com car had a pretty decent year," Coughlin said. "We're going to take everything apart and service everything and hope we can pick up 400 or 500 horsepower during the winter. That's what it's going to take to beat the blower cars."

On Sunday, Coughlin advanced to the semifinals with wins over Pat Musi and Rick Stivers before falling to Melanie Troxel in the round of four.

To start the day, Coughlin made a not-so-perfect run stand up. He sputtered and pedaled the car to a 7.098 second pass at 167.12 mph. Fortunately, Musi had more issues and coasted across in 12.046 seconds at 70.14 mph.

He won over Stivers by the narrowest of margins in Round 2. He enjoyed a .004 second advantage at the line before running a 6.000 at 234.90 mph. Stivers was hot on Coughlin's heels with a 6.008 at 240.08 mph.

In the semis, against Troxel, the No. 1 qualifier, Coughlin got out first, by .006 seconds. Troxel proved to have a little too much under the hood. She ran a 5.909 at 245.67 mph to Coughlin's 6.008 at 241.89 mph.

"Melanie is a 5-star driver, no doubt," Coughlin said. "Al Billes is a 5-star tuner and it shows."

Coughlin vowed that his team will not take it easy during the off-season and be ready to go when the 2011 season rolls around.

"We will be busy at work, that's for sure," Coughlin said. "We'll spend some time in Florida testing, which won't be so bad for winter. We should be in good shape. We'll see what the NHRA does with the rules.

"The NHRA tries hard to achieve parity, and it is close. But the nitrous cars need to make more power. We're going to spend a lot of the winter making the car better."