WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Nov. 18) – After five grueling yet fun-filled days of E.T. bracket racing action, Jeg Coughlin earned a runner-up finish in the overall points competition at the 25th annual Moroso 5-Day E.T. Championships. Coughlin turned in a strong performance, but ultimately finished a close second to Gary Williams of Bradenton, Fla.

On the final day of the competition, Coughlin needed to win the race to pass Williams for the overall championship and the $5,000 bonus that accompanies it, but came up three rounds short, finishing in the quarterfinal round.

“It’s a little disappointing to come that close and not win the championship, but I’m not too disappointed because the JEGS team had a great week,” said Coughlin. “I have to congratulate Gary Williams. He’s one of the best sportsman racers in the country and he’s on top of his game right now.”

Coughlin’s successful weekend at the Moroso event included a pair of victories. On Wednesday, Nov. 15, the three-time NHRA champ won the invitation-only JEGS Race of Champions, a special event for past 5-Day champions and racers who have competed in all 24 prior Moroso 5-Day events. Coughlin banked $5,000 after beating five-time world champion Scotty Richardson in the final round. A few minutes later, Coughlin completed the rout with a win in Wednesday’s main event, beating Al Stafferi in the final for an additional $10,000. For his two wins, Coughlin was also presented two of the special edition commemorative Dick Moroso Memorial Trophies, named for the popular Moroso Motorsports Park founder, who passed away in 1998 following a long battle with cancer.

“Anyone who follows E.T. bracket racing knows that this is one of the toughest events of the year and it feels pretty good to leave this race with two of these trophies,” said Coughlin. “This was a great way to end the year and it certainly counts as one of the highlights of my season.”

Other winners from the event included Todd Ewing of Cullman, Ala., Steve Mikus of Ashley, Mich., and Jack Steck Jr. of Atco, N.J. The fourth day of competition was canceled due to rain and was not rescheduled.

Without a doubt one of the most dominant racers at Moroso was NHRA National Champion Jeg Coughlin, Jr. He put the “smack” on everybody Wednesday as he took the $5,000.00 Race of Champions win and followed it up a few minutes later with a $10,000.00 win in the Day 3 race. Without a doubt his operation sets the standard of what a top-notch bracket program can be.

Who says chassis builders don’t use 200-mph tape?? Scott Weney had to do just that after hitting a Sand Crane in the shutdown area. (The crane needed more than 200-mph tape..) Scott must have taped it up right as he put the new S&W ‘69 Camaro roadster into the Shoot-out finals Friday night.

Gary Williams took home the overall points title as he was the dominant racer by going deep into eliminations each day. His Miller Race Cars dragster was on the 7.48 dial-in all week.

Jack Steck, Jr bagged the $20,000.00 for winning the combined Day 4 and Day 5 payouts. He was one HAPPY GUY!!! Tip of the DRO cap to Jack!!

Rain overnight created a track-drying process in the morning and after a time run for all competitiors the skies unloaded about a half-inch of rain at 3:00 PM. Without enough sunlight to put some heat in the track and more rain forecast, the Moroso management decided to do it “DOUBLE-SIZE” on Friday. The entire purse will be doubled. That means $20,000 to win, $5,000 runner-up and so on. The weather Friday morning is clear blue skies and right now it is 72 degrees.

The current point standings for the overall Moroso 5-Day Bracket Championship Points Title goes as follows:

1. Gary Williams, Bradenton, FL: 81
2. Todd Ewing, Collman, AL: 67
3. Shane Carr, Williamstown, NJ: 55
4. Dan Northrup, Doylestown, PA: 55
5. Jeg Coughlin, Jr., Delaware, OH: 52
6. Steve Witherow, Sumerduck, VA: 50
7. Steve Milkus, Ashley, MI: 50
8. Bryan Balducci, Voorhes, NJ: 46
9. Al Staffieri, Tewksbury, MA: 46
10.  Bruce Kaul, Racine, MN: 45
11. Jeremy Bargo, Barbourville, KY: 45

This will be my last day in Florida as we head home for Iowa. It has been a great time and I can’t thank the staff at Moroso Motorsports Park enough for a their efforts to make this race a great memory for all the participants and families. I hope you can plan to attend the next 5-Day Championships.

There are major changes planned and ready to go at Moroso Motorsports Park. In my “Photo Recap” and “Stat Report” coming up next week you will see some of the details on their plans. For now just remember this word…VELOCITA…a lifestyle of speed and style. It will put Moroso Motorsports Park into the next level of motorsports and what their customers can expect.

Hope to meet some of you at the PRI Show in Orlando. Until then, travel and race safe and have a great Holiday season.

To say Jeg Coughlin, Jr. dominated Wednesday’s racing is putting it mildly. He won the special Race of Champions $5,000 to win event then capped off the evening by winning the Day 3 $10,000 event. Dialed 7.41 0r 7.42 all day his ’06 Mullis dragster was the picture of consistency and his reaction times were just as consistent.

The final round of the Race of Champions was about as good as it can get if you enjoy and follow bracket racing. Scotty Richardson was paired with Jeggie for the final round and the title of “Race of Champions” winner. Scotty had an .021 reaction time and that left the door open for Jeg and he got under that with a .010 and ran a 7.44 on his 7.42 for his first title of the day. The Race of Champions was the Who’s Who of bracket racing. In my final 5-Day recap I will go over some of the things that went on outside of the racing.

After the Winner’s Circle photos for the Race of Champions Jeg had to drive through the crowd and get back to staging to finish his business in the $10,000 to win Day 3 event. The semi-finals of the Day 3 race looked like it could have been a race of champions on its own merit. Luke Bogaki, Shane Carr, Al Staffieri and Jeg. (Think these guys have won some races?!)

Shane Carr handed Jeg a trip to the finals with an oh-so-close -.002 red light. Luke Bogaki earned what racers hope never happen to them, a LBTA. (Left Before Third Amber). Some sort of electrical gremlin bit him at a bad time and Staffieri moved the final against Jeg. Al Staffieri hit what every racer hopes for on the tree in a final round, a .001 reaction time. Jeg had his worst light of eliminations and it looked like a win for Staffieri but he misjudged the stripe and gave it back to Jeg by .009 and had to settle for runner-up.

The Wednesday “Casino Party” was a great time for everyone. The entire Moroso Motorsports Park staff gets an “thumbs up” for great planning and execution of such a large event and keeping it fun for all of us.

Race of Champions:
Round 4:
Scotty Richardson / .012 R.T.  / 7.43 dial / 7.480 / 175.81
Larry Ericksmoen / .058 / 7.65 / 7.672 / 173.51

Steve Ryan / .029 / 10.17 / 10.164 / 131.98
Ron Folk / .015 / 7.37 / 7.361 / 178.64

Jeg Coughlin / bye

Round 5:
Jeg Coughlin / .019 / 7.41 / 7.422 / 180.03
Steve Ryan / .015 / 10.15 / 10.177 / 127.67

Scotty Richardson / bye

Round 6:
Jeg Coughlin, Jr / .010 / 7.42 / 7.443 / 176.71
Scotty Richardson / .021 / 7.44 / 7.466 / 170.87

The Moroso 5-Day Bracket Championship entered Day 2 with more great weather and a very experienced and tough field of cars. Moroso management threw in a “bonus” race today, $5,000.00 to win on the 1/8th mile that started when the $10,000.00 race reached the ladder at 32 cars.

In the main event here is how it broke down at 8 cars:
Winners listed on top:

Name / Reaction / dial-in / ET / MPH

Gary Williams / .011 / 7.47 / 7.520 /159.65
Frank Dibartolomeo / -.004 foul / 7.99 / 8.498 / 123.05

Dan Northrup / .022 / 7.43 / 7.487 / 158.33
George Rupert / -.044 / 7.54 / 7.537 / 178.18

Bruce Kaul / .011 / 7.75 / 7.751 / 172.41
Bob Maclosky / .004 / 7.76 / 7.756 / 167.81

Steve Mikus / .007 / 7.96 / 7.999 / 153.11
Forrest Lipke / .020 / 7.27 / 7.334 / 183.67

Semis:
Gary Williams / .000 / 7.47 / 7.482 / 168.00
Bruce Kaul / -.003 / 7.75 / 9.95

Steve Mikus / .007 / 7.97 / 7.992 / 154.90
Dan Northrup / .019 / 7.43 / 7.418 / 178.53

FINAL ROUND:
Steve Mikus / .013 / 7.97 / 7.954 / 166.91
Gary Williams / -.002 / 7.47 / 7.422 / 180.94

I had a short conversation with today’s champion Steve Mikus and this is what I found out about an all-around nice guy and tough bracket racer.

His hometown is Ashley, MI, he is retired from General Motors and has been bracket racing for about 30 years. He recently retired his Nova for a Spitzer dragster that as he put it, “he modified a little”. If you call putting a new cage on, clipping the front half to make it longer and then back-halving it and adding a four-link “modifying it a little” just wait until he build a complete car. He wanted me to mention his engine builder as the engine combination has been working great. The engine builder is ENGINE MACHINE SERVICE in Potterville, MI.
This is the 6th trip to the Moroso 5-Day Bracket Championships and he finally grabbed a title he can remember forever.  It’s nice to see a racer with a great deal of skill and ingenuity can still topple the high-rollers with their mega-teams and half-million dollar operations. Great job Steve, well deserved win!!

The 1/8 mile event:
At the quarter finals. There were 7 racers, the guys who didn’t win that round were, Bob Maclosky, Jeff Strickland & Jason Hoff.

Semis:
Steve Ryan (door car) / .014 r.t. / 6.49 / 6.509 / 99.92
Jason Lynch / .004 / 4.80 / 4.798 / 143.26

Claude Debonis / .003 / 4.86 / 4.875 / 137.93
Bruce Fiorito / .009 / 4.57 / 4.564 / 150.60

FINALS 1/8th mile
Steve Ryan (door car winner) / .020 / 6.47 / 6.475 / 106.1
Claude Debonis / .027 / 4.86 / 4.849 / 137.40

I noticed a lot more door cars going deep into the rounds tonight. Being a recent convert to the dragster it still does my heart good to see these guys in the door cars winning. We’ll see how the next events go and if the door cars, which are outnumbered about 5 to 1 can reach another final round.

Watch DRO for a complete “photo special” and a detailed article on what it takes to win at this race and some of the highlights and some of the “fun stuff” which starts tonight at the Casino Party.

One more thing before I go make my time trial, of course this is “off the record”….. watch DRO for a major announcement real soon about a certain Motorsports Park in South Florida…sh-h-h-h-h-h-h-, it’s a DRO insider secret.

Talk to you tomorrow.

As you can see in the headline it was Todd Ewing’s night at the first race of the 25th Anniversary Race of the Moroso 5-Day Bracket Championships. I have some details coming up later in the story but I also know a lot of you reading this wondered what it was like to go to a race like this or even prepare to go. Here is a bit of my story and some facts about the race itself as it happened.

First, if you plan on a trip like this—2,700 miles for me—you pretty much end up planning and planning and then the day comes to leave. For us it was almost a day too late. I had the motorhome idling in the driveway waiting for son Andy and wife Barb to get off work at noon and I was watching the SNOW (yeah, that Iowa four-letter word) start to accumulate on the grass. It was 34 degrees with 35 mph north winds! Talk about a great day to leave for sunny Florida.

The trip went absolutely great, the Trailer Toad made its longest journey and made the ride super-smooth over some harsh Interstates. We drove in rain for 1,000 miles which is no big deal, but looking through wipers was getting pretty boring.

We made it to the beautiful Moroso Motorsports Park Sunday afternoon, made a couple runs and went looking for alligators! Got some great photos I will try to get posted tomorrow. Still figuring out how to get that done “on the road.” Hey, I am still just a racer learning about live result reporting.

How Day 1 of the 5-Day went:

Two hundred forty cars showed for the first round and all the big names in bracket racing and national caliber sportsman racing were there. Jeg Coughlin and his team, the Folks, three-time Moroso points winner Kenny Underwood (in a Jeg’s dragster), Troy Williams, Jr., Luke Bogaki and the list goes on. The thing that stuck out the most to me as I watched and participated in the event as it unfolded was just how FAST the cars were. It was common to see the dial-ins at 7.20 and 7.30. When I think back only a few years ago that wasn’t too far off what some Pro Stockers were running. Super fast and super consistent was the name of the game.

A tradition at the Moroso 5-Day is “going on the ladder” at 32 cars. Make that list and you have done well that day. In the round of 16 (5th round) there were only two red lights and they were the same pair with Gary Williams going -.002 after Joe Moravec turned it red by -.005. The rest of the round was pretty average for reaction times. The average winning reaction time was .018 and losing average reaction time was .037. Are you surprised it wasn’t about a .007 average, I was.

Round 6 was not much of an improvement for reaction times as winners averaged .020 and there were NO RED LIGHTS.
Round 7 was the semi-finals.

Todd Ewing went .003 on the bulb, and his opponent, Troy Williams, Jr. was really red with a -.014. Bryan Balducci then benefited from the second red light of the semis when Gary Williams was .007 red to Bryan’s green .006 reaction time.

THE FINALS: winner gets $25,000. Both lights are green so it is a race to the stripe for the first event of the week.

Todd Ewing smacked the tree with a great .001 reaction time and a 7.457 on his 7.42 dial for the win. Balducci didn’t make it easy as he hit a .010 light but ran a 8.024 on his 7.99 dial. Margin of victory for Ewing was .006 of a second.

As I mentioned earlier a few things really stood out to me.
1. Average dial-in at 8 cars was 7.53!
2. The slowest car at 32, when they hit the ladder, was 8.48.
3. There were no door cars at 32 but there are a lot of good door cars here, tomorrow may be their day.

Congratulations go out to Todd Ewing for a much sought after victory and to Moroso Motorsports Park for being such great hosts and keeping the tradition alive.

Tomorrow will hope to have a lot of photos and even more detail as I found where I can get on the Internet and get results back to DRO faster.