Drag Illustrated Issue 160, September 2020 | Page 83

“ THE DAYS OF SHOWING UP AND SUGGESTING A FEW THINGS ARE GETTING SLIM BECAUSE THE COMPETITION IS SO GREAT AND THE TUNERS ARE ALL GREAT AT WHAT THEY DO .“
STEVIE “ FAST ” JACKSON IS KNOWN FOR HIS DRIVING , BUT HE TAKES JUST AS MUCH PRIDE IN HIS TUNING TALENTS .
PHOTO : JAMES SISK
“ THE DAYS OF SHOWING UP AND SUGGESTING A FEW THINGS ARE GETTING SLIM BECAUSE THE COMPETITION IS SO GREAT AND THE TUNERS ARE ALL GREAT AT WHAT THEY DO .“
Coughlin Jr .’ s Pro Stock ride and does the same with Aaron Stanfield in the same class . But he ’ s raced in Pro Nitrous , and he ’ s tuned in a variety of classes , including Top Sportsman , Outlaw 632 , Pro Nitrous and no prep .
When someone says you ’ re a versatile tuner , what does that mean to you ?
SJ : It ’ s a huge , huge chip on my shoulder and it ’ s a big deal for me to not get backed into a box . My goal when I started was to tune anything wheels on it . I take satisfaction not just running them but tuning them to run them well . There ’ s not a lot I mess with that ’ s not the quickest in the world in some aspect . A lot of it was just being financially destroyed early and having to
September 2020 really work on stuff , as well as being surrounded by people who are like-minded . Billy [ Stocklin ] can work on anything and I ’ m sitting right next to him .
But standing behind a customer ’ s car and watching it perform like it should , it ’ s just as satisfying as sitting in the seat .
RJ : What I like about it is every car is unique , every car ’ s power combination , the tracks that they race at . Every day is different and there ’ s an opportunity to learn every day , it doesn ’ t matter what car we ’ re working on . It is interesting to learn the differences between the different power adders and the cars and the chassis and the way that everything works . It ’ s never just one thing that ’ s like , “ Here ’ s the magic button to push .” It ’ s always the whole package . So the engine ’ s got to be right , the converters got to be right . You have to find the happy spot as a package . So , it ’ s a challenge .
As a tuner , that ’ s what I find interesting about it . There ’ s always an opportunity to learn , always an opportunity to be better or go faster . Whatever it may be , it ’ s never stagnant . I think a lot of people on the outside might just see , “ Oh hey , it ’ s a car . It goes in a straight line .” But there ’ s always something new , or always something different happening . Trying to learn to adapt and do the best with what we have is the fun part .
JE : It ’ s absolutely been big from a business standpoint . It ’ s taken on paths I didn ’ t expect to take on and that diversity helps . Until 2010 , I had only worked on a Pro Stock car . That ’ s really all I knew to that point . The shop is very diverse now , from Top Sportsman racers to pro racers and we ’ re still heavily involved in Pro Stock . A guy can call the shop and need advice and because we tune all of them , we can speak pretty fluently on it because we have first-hand experience tuning it all .
How much pride do you take in being able to tune so many different things ?
SJ : The biggest thing is people get locked into a box of that ’ s how it ’ s always been done and how
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