Coughlin brothers Belle Rose Friday summary

Coughlin brothers solidly qualified in Belle Rose

BELLE ROSE, La. (April 20) -- Brothers John and Mike Coughlin are solidly qualified in their respective eliminators for the fourth annual Jegs.com NHRA Cajun SPORTSnationals at No Problem Raceway Park.

After two qualifying runs on Friday, John is currently seeded third in Super Stock with his Chevy Cobalt after an 8.73 run and he is 18th in the highly competitive Top Dragster division with a best run of 7.22-seconds.

"Overall, I'm happy with the performance of both of my Team JEGS cars," said John, who is the current points leader in the Division 3 Top Dragster standings following his victory earlier this year in Orlando, Fla. "We made a few minor changes to the set-up of my Super Stock car and it really responded. In fact, that 8.73 run might have been the best run we've made with this car. It was very straight and smooth and did everything we wanted it to do. I also made a couple of good runs in my Top Dragster. Overall I'm very happy and I've got every reason to think we can win some rounds on Sunday."

Mike Coughlin is also highly optimistic after qualifying third in the Top Sportsman class with a 6.902-second run in hisJEGS.com Chevy Cobalt. Mike is currently one of just six Top Sportsman racers to run in the six-second zone.

"I made two runs in the sixes today and that is exactly what we wanted to do," said Mike. "On the second run, it did the same thing as it did on the first, which is exactly what you want in this class. We put a bigger engine in the car this year so that we could qualify in the top half of the field and so far, that plan is paying off."

Troy Coughlin is also on hand in Belle Rose making exhibition runs in his turbocharged Pro Mod Pontiac GTO. After several attempts, Troy has thus far managed to coax a best of 6.49-seconds from the new machine which should ultimately run in the fives at over 240-mph.

Three-time NHRA world champion Jeg Coughlin was originally scheduled to compete in Belle Rose, but had a last-minute change of plans when he elected to use the rare weekend off from the NHRA POWERade Series to spend with his son, Jeg III.

Qualifying for the JEGS.com NHRA Cajun SPORTSNationals will continue on Saturday with final eliminations scheduled for Sunday, April 22.

-credit: team jegs