Coughenour Pilots Memorex Chevrolet to 10th Place Series Points Finish

February 12, 2002 – Petaluma, CA – Memorex, the best selling CD-R Media in the world has announced they will be the primary marketing partner with C & C Racing as the team embarks on a run at the SRL Wild West Shootout title.  Veteran driver Ed Coughenour will pilot the #98 Memorex Chevrolet Monte Carlo for the 2002 season.  The team may also compete in selected NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series events.

This will be Coughenour's first full season of racing for many years, and he likes the team's chances at a very successful 2002 campaign.  "We are very pleased that Memorex will be back with our team for the 2002 season.  This will be the third straight year of our association with Memorex, but the first time we have put together a deal to run the entire year", said Coughenour.  "We decided in the middle of last year to build all new equipment and refocus our efforts on a more local series.  We were struggling with trying to run the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series on a limited basis over the past few years,  and we simply did not have the resources necessary for testing and the extensive travel required to perform at a level we wanted", said Coughenour.  

"We have converted to the Lefthander chassis, which is something we have wanted to do for quite some time now, and we have a very solid engine program that we are confident will make us a top contender in the SRL Wild West Shootout in 2002", continued Coughenour.  "Crew Chief Tom Caturegli has put together an absolutely first class program for us, and we have a great team of people.  Now that we have secured the marketing support from Memorex, we feel we have put the all the pieces together for what we expect to be a great season." 

Memorex will utilize the marketing program for 2002 to promote their products throughout Central and Northern California.  The team will be promoting Memorex products at Northern California retail outlets, and will design promotional programs like last year's very successful Memorex "Race To Savings Sweepstakes" ticket giveaway sweepstakes at Fry's Electronics. 

Pit Stop USA.com ( www.pitstopusa.com ) will be an associate sponsor.  The online motorsports retailer has experienced tremendous growth over the past year year and will utilize the marketing program with C & C Racing to promote their expanding business.  The team also announced that they have secured associate marketing support from Allstar Performance, QuickCar Racing Products, Reactor Power Cells, Bilstein Racing Shocks, Flowmaster, DAYCO, VALCO Cincinnati, Eagle Tech Collision, B & C Automotive, Chassis R & D, Wine Country Gases and Mark Morris Tires for the 2002 season.

C & C Racing is located is based in Petaluma, California with the race shop located in Cloverdale, California and competes on the SRL Wild West Shootout Late Model Series and NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series.  The team's primary marketing partner is Memorex.  Associate marketing partners include Pit Stop USA .com;  Allstar Performance;  QuickCar Racing Products;  Eagle Tech Collision;  VALCO Cincinnati;  DAYCO;  Flowmaster;  Bilstein Racing Shocks;  Wine Country Gases;   Allstar Performance;  Chassis R&D;  B & C Automotive and Mark Morris Tires.  For more information please contact Ed Coughenour at C & C Racing, www.c-cracing.com .

Memorex Chevrolet 12^th At Altamont

October 1, 2000 – Petaluma, CA – The most recent stop for the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series at Altamont Raceway Park was an exciting 100 lap event that resulted in an exciting two lap shootout to determine the final standings.   A big crowd was in the grandstands for the event, and NASCAR Busch Grand National Drivers Ron Hornaday, Jr. and Kevin Harvick were on hand competing in the Snap On 100 which made the event even tougher than is typical of the always ultra-competitive NASCAR touring series.

In what turned out to be quite a slugfest that knocked out several of the series frontrunners, Ed Coughenour driving the Memorex Chevrolet survived the many spins and crashes and finished on the lead lap in 12^th position after starting 26^th.  Mark Reed won the event, his second victory in a row after capturing the Star Nursery.com 250 in Las Vegas last weekend. 

It was a particularly hard-fought evening for the C & C Racing team, as the team struggled all day with a very tight racecar.  “We just got this car back together after having to have a new front clip put on it after Madera,” commented driver Ed Coughenour.  “The Memorex Chevrolet was really tight all day in practice, but we kept adjusting on it trying to improve it.  Then we had a problem with the carburetor after we had installed the new throttle stops that NASCAR has mandated.  This led up to a poor qualifying effort and we had run the qualifying race.  We were thrilled to finish second and make the show and then we found the carburetor problem.  We were really hoping for a top ten, but we are pretty happy with 12^th tonight since we started 26th.  We are real happy to have not got caught up in any of the crashes and stay on the lead lap.  We had a couple of close calls out there.” 

The final green flag period of the Snap On 100 saw the lead lap cars running nose-to-tail before a late race incident saw then leader Eric Holmes knocked out in turn one setting up the final “green-white-checker” shootout to the finish that extended the race to 106 laps.  “We really thought we could pick up a couple more positions in the final two laps, but the cars in front of us did an excellent job of protecting the inside groove.  This track is tough to pass on, and I had done everything we could to save the tires for the last ten laps.  We were really making up some ground there at the end before that last caution.  Once the guys in front of me had a chance to cool off their tires we really didn’t have much of a chance to move up at the end,” continued Coughenour.  “We really owe thanks to Victory Circle Chassis who got this car back to us in only two days or we wouldn’t have made this race at all.  We basically have a brand new racecar from the firewall forward and we will have to make some adjustments until we find out what this car will like now in terms of setup.  We pretty much ran the identical setup that we ran in the August Shell Tri-Track event here, but the car handled much different than we thought it would.  The Hoosier tires were consistent, but had a ton more forward bite than the ones we ran here in August.” 

A special thanks goes out to Sean, Todd and Armand who volunteered to help us out this week to get the racecar together and came to the race to support the team.  Crew Chief Tom Caturegli and the crew burned a ton of midnight oil this week to get the Memorex Chevrolet ready to race at Altamont.

The C & C Racing team members include owner / driver Ed Coughenour; Crew Chief Tom Caturegli, Mike Caturegli, Kenny Spencer, Brad Rugg, Carl Dillard, Colin Coughenour, Marina Wright, Brice Blosser and Kelly Conway.

In Friday and Saturday practice sessions it was extremely difficult to get clean laps on the track to evaluate setups and get Coughenour used to the tricky street circuit.  This was only the third time Coughenour had ever driven on a road course and the very limited practice time allotted was further compromised by very slick track conditions, accidents and debris on the race track.  

"We had a very good race car for Sunday's race", said Coughenour.  "We had a problem with the ignition cutting out on us in qualifying on our best lap and had to settle for 30th starting position, but the car felt real competitive and ready for the race on Sunday.  A lot of very good race cars went home without making the field and four of the top runners in the series were forced to take provisional starting spots, so we were pleased to make the show, although we were disappointed with our qualifying effort."

After a strong start with Coughenour moving up through the field, disaster struck the Memorex Chevrolet when the motor began to misfire in the early going.  Coughenour quickly pulled onto pit road after the car shut off completely.  He quickly switched to the backup ignition on pit road, and after a brief stop charged back onto the track.  But the track temperatures reported by NBC to be in excess of 140 degrees proved to be too much for the ignition wiring the the Memorex Chevrolet and the car completely shut down on the front straightaway a lap later.  After being pushed into the pits by the tow truck the crew discovered that the severe heat had completely melted down the wiring to the distributor.  After several attempts to rewire the ignition on pit road, the team discovered the ignitions had both short circuited and the car would not start ending the teams day very early.

At least four other teams experienced the exact same fate as the high temperatures and the brutal racing circuit got the best of man and machine.  The heat also claimed two veteran drivers, Rudy Revak and Darrell La Moure who were pulled from their cars with heat exhaustion.  Broken transmissions and rear ends, brake failures (including a spectacular brake fire on Jim Inglebright's Jelly Belly Chevrolet) and numerous accidents decimated the remainder of the thirty six car field.  The nine competitors that eventually finished the 125 mile event looked more like junkers than $70,000 NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series cars.  Craig Raudman drove a extremely strong and patient race and won the richest race in series history over series point leader Matt Crafton.

"Obviously, the whole team was very disappointed with what happened to our ignition", continued Coughenour.  "The car was absolutely awesome out there.  We were just biding our time and planned to just cruise until the last thirty laps or so and save the equipment.  This team is so much better than our results this year, and we just have had terrible luck.  We are going to get this monkey off our back real soon, and when we do this team is going to turn some heads.  We just hate it for Memorex, Fry's Electronics and all of our sponsors who have been great in supporting this team.  Craig Raudman drove a heck of race out there today, and I know he was still in a lot of pain from his accident at Fontana.  He really deserved the win."

The team wants to extend special thanks to Bill Hindorff from Krupp Bilstien of America who attended the event and worked on the pit crew.  Bill's support has made a huge difference to the teams competitiveness this year and we loved having him in the garage area for the event.  Greg Wilson, crew member for Tony Greene at Irwindale Speedway, also assisted the team for the weekend, as team was short handed due to crew member Kenny Spencer suffering a very serious broken leg while on vacation in Idaho over fourth of July weekend.  Kenny had surgery on July 10th complete having to have several pins and plates installed on his badly broken leg.  We look forward to Kenny being back with us real soon, and we wish him a very speedy recovery.  We really missed him at Los Angeles, and we are extremely grateful to Bill and Greg for their help at the race.

The C & C Racing team really looked forward to the event with this being

veteran Ed Coughenour’s first attempt at making the field as a driver at Sears Point Raceway.  Coughenour has played car owner the past two years as former NASCAR Winston West Champion and road racing ace Butch Gilliland drove the C & C Racing Chevrolet in the event the past two years, finishing tenth in the 1998 race.  “I did not have the opportunity to get any testing the past two years at Sears Point, so it made sense to put Butch in the car.  We did get a limited test session this year so I finally got the opportunity to drive this year.  It is tough to even qualify for this race with all of the extra cars and drivers that come to Sears Point every year for this race,” said Coughenour. 

Thursday’s practice and qualifying did not net the results for the Memorex Chevrolet the team was looking for as they fought a very loose race car and transmission problems.  “The car got loose up in turn four and came around in qualifying.  We flat spotted the tires and that pretty much cost us a first round qualifying spot.  We were also having a tough time down shifting into second gear.  The ratio’s in the transmission were not working as well as we thought and that really cost us in qualifying.” 

The Memorex Chevrolet started sixth in Friday’s Qualifying Race, and finished a respectable third.  This placed Coughenour thirty-seventh in starting grid for Saturdays “Snap On Tools / AAA 200”.  “We had a pretty smooth race in the Memorex Chevrolet, and we felt better about our chances for Saturday.  The car was still a little loose off the corners, and still had problems with the transmission”. 

The C & C Racing team, headed by Crew Chief Mike Caturegli, planned to stay out on the race track as long as possible before the first pit stop to gain track position.  “We knew that there would be a lot of caution flags in the first part of the race and if the yellows came at the right time we could gain several positions,” said Coughenour.  “We planned to pit after lap 30 for left side tires and fuel.  If we didn’t catch a caution, we planned to pit for four tires under green and fuel and run until the end.” 

The strategy was playing out well.  After biding his time at the start of the race, Coughenour in the Memorex Chevrolet moved up to seventeenth place after several cars had made pit stops under caution.  The team was right on their race strategy, and they were hoping for a caution around lap 30.  But the strategy would be interrupted by another competitor soon after. 

Two laps after the green flag came back out, the Memorex Chevrolet was tapped from behind in turn 8 by Eric Holmes in the Taco Bell Chevrolet.  This started a wild ride for Coughenour as he hit the hillside outside turn nine hard causing heavy body and radiator damage to the racecar.  Coughenour quickly departed the car as a flash fire erupted in the engine bay.  He frantically tried to put the fire out and surveyed the damage to the car so that he could climb back into the car and get to the pits.  However, NASCAR and the safety crew had other ideas and due to the hard impact wanted to take Ed to the infield care center for a checkup to insure there were no injuries. 

The car was towed to the garage area, where most of the body work was stripped off the car and the radiator replaced. The Memorex Chevrolet returned to competition looking more like a modified than a stock car.  The team’s day ended for good shortly after when some debris took out the radiator and the car was taken behind the wall for the final time, finishing a disappointing thirty-fifth.  The race was decided on the last lap, with Jim Inglebright in the Jelly Belly’s Chevrolet winning after a dramatic last lap pass of Greg Pursley. 

The Memorex Chevrolet received just over two minutes of dedicated on camera time, with several mentions from Benny Parsons and Dr. Jerry Punch of ESPN during the several replays of the crash.  This translates into media exposure of about $27,000 based on commercial advertising rates for ESPN for this event for the live broadcast and tape delay re-broadcast.  The team also handed out over two thousand autograph cards that included pictures of the car and driver and logos from all of the teams marketing partners. 

“Benny Parsons from ESPN had lunch in our trailer on Friday, and really had a good time talking with him.  He is headed for NBC next year with the new NASCAR Winston Cup television package.  He is really a great guy.  Dr. Jerry Punch also came by and talked with us for a while.  Benny was really pleased to see the Memorex name on the car and both of them did a great job in insuring that Memorex was mentioned several times during the broadcast,” commented Coughenour. 

The Memorex Chevrolet also sported logos for Fry’s Electronics.  The team made three appearances on Father’s Day weekend at Fry’s Electronics locations in San Jose, Sunnyvale and Sacramento.  C & C Racing designed and implemented a promotion in the Fry’s Electronics stores to give away tickets to the Sears Point event.  Several key corporate officials of Fry’s Electronics also attended Sunday’s NASCAR Winston Cup Race, courtesy of Memorex.  Memorex is running a similar promotion in the Los Angeles Fry’s Electronics locations, giving away tickets to the Ford L.A. Street Race. 

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