Journeyman drag racer and mail order maven Troy Coughlin has virtually done and seen it all in his 25 years in the sport of drag racing, earning three professional victories, one sportsman national event victory, and two wins on the divisional circuit while competing in Super Comp, Super Gas, Pro Stock, Pro Street, and Pro Modified. And it’s in Pro Modified where the 47-year old is working to claim his first series championship. This is a fact no more evident than in his hiring of tuner to the stars, Steve Petty, to turn the wrenches on his turbocharged JEG’S ’67 Camaro this season.
Coughlin, no stranger to new race cars, is drawing nearer to the debut of another brand new piece, as he and Petty have a new C6 Chevrolet Corvette on the jig at Roger Burgess’ R2B2 Race Cars facility in Georgia. Petty is, of course, rather familiar with the work of the R2B2 shop and head man Jim Geese, having tuned the R2B2 stable of race cars fro drivers Burgess, Leah Pruett, Melanie Troxel, and Eric Dillard prior to joining Coughlin.
The new Corvette, splashed in the distinctive “JEG’S yellow” paint, is in the latter stages of construction and may very well hit the race track by the time the series rolls into Charlotte, Sept. 14-16, or at St. Louis later in the month. One of the more interesting features of the car — one that’s hard to miss — is the clear bubble placed over the intake manifold, which borrows a page out of the book of the production ZR1 Corvette that also has a clear cover to provide a glimpse inside.