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Bracket Racing - Troy Coughlin Jr. Wants A Win At Spring Fling 20s


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BRISTOL, May 14, 2012: For sportsman racers looking to make their mark in the world of high stakes E.T. bracket racing, there is no better event than the annual K&N Spring Fling 20s. Held each May at picturesque Bristol Dragway in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the event is the brainchild of racers Peter Biondo and Kyle Seipel, who have made it one of the "must attend" races each season.

JEGS Mail Order will have a strong presence at the event as a presenting sponsor of Saturday and Sunday’s $20,000-to-win main event races as well as the live video feed that will bring the action to a worldwide internet audience throughout all four days of competition.

Past Mac Tools U.S. Nationals champion Troy Coughlin Jr. will be flying the familiar yellow-and-black JEGS colors as he brings his JEGS.com dragster to the event. Coughlin plans to compete in all four main events, including Thursday’s $12,000-to-win race and the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday races that pay $20,000 to each winner. Coughlin is also one of the 32 racers who will compete for a new dragster in the Dragster Shootout race held Friday night. Last year, Coughlin won the event and was rewarded with an American Race Cars dragster chassis.

"Winning that dragster last year was awesome," Coughlin said. "Now I’d really like to win one of the big races. There will be a lot of cars at this race and pretty much every great racer will be there but my dragster has been very good lately, so I’m hoping that we can go some rounds.

"Peter and Kyle do and awesome job with this event. They're racers and they know what racers want. They have a lot of great events planned like the racer barbecue. It makes for a really fun weekend."

Biondo and Seipel are also the first promoters to run a major E.T. bracket event on a 1,000-foot race course, a distance normally used exclusively by NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car racers. In Bristol, the distance is offered as a compromise between the racers who normally compete on either a quarter-mile or eighth-mile track.

Having raced at last year’s K&N Spring Fling 20s, Coughlin feels his driving style is perfectly suited for the 1,000-foot distance.

"I didn't have a problem with it at all," Coughlin said. "It actually works well because you have more time to make a decision then you would if this was an eighth-mile race and since it’s shorter than a quarter-mile, you don’t put as much wear and tear on your equipment. We broke a couple of rocker arms at my last race so I know how much of an impact that can have."

As usual, Coughlin will be accompanied by his crew chief and traveling companion, Kenny Underwood, who has an incredibly long résumé at high stakes E.T. bracket races. Underwood has served as a mentor for the 21-year-old Coughlin for the last several seasons and has been instrumental in his growth as a driver.

"When it comes to bracket racing, Kenny has experienced it all," Coughlin said. "When we race together, Kenny and I make a pretty good team. We’re able to share a lot of information and that helps both of us. These big races are so competitive, and so hard to win that it’s great to have someone there that you can trust.”