During the second round of the SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout, multi-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Jeggie Coughlin made an uncharacteristic run that put his Pro Stock Camaro up on two wheels and had a glancing blow against the right lane retaining wall. He was uninjured, but the car suffered some structural damage.
Coughlin faced tire shake, and as he employed counter-measures to iron out the angry tires, the car made an abrupt “Pro Modish” right turn toward the wall. While the incident could have been a lot worse, Coughlin admitted it could have been a lot better.
“Just as soon as I let the clutch out, I could feel it starting to shake, and I got it into second gear pretty as quickly as I could with the way it was accelerating, and third gear, even,” Coughlin recalled. “Typically, when you can row it through a couple of gears really quickly, it’ll kind of knock the breath out of it and drive down through there. It’s not going to be fast, but you don’t know what’s going on in the other lane. Didn’t know Cory was running low ET of the round over there.”
Coughlin has had experience with angry Pro Stockers before. But this time, Coughlin said there was no getting this one to calm down, no matter the proven tricks applied to inspire it.
“I’ve stuck with them longer and got away with it, and I’ve never hit anything, so I guess I’ve stuck with them shorter too and got away with it,” Coughlin said. “It just was definitely oscillating. I think I had it in third gear by that time, and it was starting to come around, and then it just kind of, as I was pushing the clutch in and it bit all at the same time, and that just kind of cocked and sent me toward the wall.
“What went through my mind real quick is there’s not enough room between me and this wall for this thing to set down. I was like, “Son of a bitch.” Obviously knocked it into the wall.”
Coughlin feels that after 27 years of racing Pro Stock, the incident bruised up his feelings.
“The first time to physically run into something was pretty painful,” Coughlin said. “It sucks. I hate it for obvious reasons. One, we lost the round. Two, we hurt a really good car. Will get fixed, but it creates a lot more work in the meantime as we prepare for Gainesville.”
Until the team gets back to the Elite shop, it can only take inventory of damage to the Camaro’s quarter-panel and parts of the front-end.
“We’ll put her on the jig and get her fixed up,” Coughlin said. “When it comes off there, and it’ll have some new pieces on it, and we’ll be ready for Gainesville.”
