NMRA’s Coyote Stock class is characterized not only by its cutthroat competition (and wild wheelies, of course) but also by the ingenuity of its racers. An enterprising and enthusiastic bunch, Coyote Stock’s competitors are driven by the thrill of success and are often motivated to find new ways of overcoming obstacles. For Tim Donathen, that means finding a way to better baseline his clutch combination to ensure his setup is as rock-solid as it can be.
Donathen had been building and working on friends’ and customers’ cars for years out of his home-based Donathen Racing shop in Indiana and had plenty of prior driving experience in various categories. Still, it wasn’t until 2021 that he made his official NMRA Coyote Stock debut as a driver. Through learning to control his 1978 Ford Fairmont beachy behemoth, Donathen soon realized the importance of getting his clutch dialed into perfection.
“With these cars, there are three main components – the driver, the car, and the clutch – that are critical to the overall performance and ultimately, to success,” affirmed Donathen, who admits the clutch was his weak point. “To learn and to get better, I was reading data to try and get the clutch to perform a certain way, so I came up with a scale that emulates a flywheel and you can bolt your clutch diaphragm and disc to it.”
While racing, Donathen found that oftentimes he would make changes to his clutch or shim it in a certain way to adjust the base pressure, and he wanted to verify what was occurring was actually what he thought was happening.
Donathen’s development, which he christened the Load Verifier 4000, was originally inspired by something his friend and fellow NMRA racer, Drew Lyons, had come up with. Towards the end of 2021, Donathen improved upon Lyons’ original design and produced a unit that allows the user to bolt the entire clutch assembly to a flywheel emulator.
The resulting apparatus was a functional “work of art” made from 3/4-inch-thick plate steel with Blanchard-ground surfaces to ensure flatness and accuracy. Intentionally constructed to be stout and designed to take a beating, the “4000” part of the moniker references the 4,000 pounds of base pressure load that can be used while testing the clutch
“The Load Verifier 4000 keeps everything perfectly centered and I had it calibrated so the readings are correct and consistent,” explained Donathen, a medical industry maintenance master and a stickler for consistency with no variables. “Changing clutches from year to year, or when one wears out, you want to make sure the base pressure is consistent so you have the same reference points to start with.”
Surprisingly, Donathen has found that the very same clutches from the same manufacturer with the same part numbers can have a substantial amount of variation in the base pressure – often several hundred pounds from one to another. “This Load Verifier gives you a better starting point out of the gate, or if you’ve made a quick pass on a clutch you’ve shimmed in a certain way, it will let you know where it’s at,” he noted.
Rather than keep his contraption to himself and enjoy an advantage with his combination’s setup, Donathen has decided to make his invention available to his fellow competitors, too, for the greater good. Racers who want to get their clutches confirmed and verified on Donathen Racing’s Load Verifier 4000 so they can go into the 2024 season of racing with a known number instead of an arbitrary, out-of-the-box load, can contact Tim Donathen; current rates are $150 per clutch with a turnaround time of approximately one week, not including shipping and transit times.
Donathen had been building and working on friends’ and customers’ cars for years out of his home-based Donathen Racing shop in Indiana and had plenty of prior driving experience in various categories. Still, it wasn’t until 2021 that he made his official NMRA Coyote Stock debut as a driver. Through learning to control his 1978 Ford Fairmont beachy behemoth, Donathen soon realized the importance of getting his clutch dialed into perfection.
“With these cars, there are three main components – the driver, the car, and the clutch – that are critical to the overall performance and ultimately, to success,” affirmed Donathen, who admits the clutch was his weak point. “To learn and to get better, I was reading data to try and get the clutch to perform a certain way, so I came up with a scale that emulates a flywheel and you can bolt your clutch diaphragm and disc to it.”
While racing, Donathen found that oftentimes he would make changes to his clutch or shim it in a certain way to adjust the base pressure, and he wanted to verify what was occurring was actually what he thought was happening.
Donathen’s development, which he christened the Load Verifier 4000, was originally inspired by something his friend and fellow NMRA racer, Drew Lyons, had come up with. Towards the end of 2021, Donathen improved upon Lyons’ original design and produced a unit that allows the user to bolt the entire clutch assembly to a flywheel emulator.
The resulting apparatus was a functional “work of art” made from 3/4-inch-thick plate steel with Blanchard-ground surfaces to ensure flatness and accuracy. Intentionally constructed to be stout and designed to take a beating, the “4000” part of the moniker references the 4,000 pounds of base pressure load that can be used while testing the clutch
“The Load Verifier 4000 keeps everything perfectly centered and I had it calibrated so the readings are correct and consistent,” explained Donathen, a medical industry maintenance master and a stickler for consistency with no variables. “Changing clutches from year to year, or when one wears out, you want to make sure the base pressure is consistent so you have the same reference points to start with.”
Surprisingly, Donathen has found that the very same clutches from the same manufacturer with the same part numbers can have a substantial amount of variation in the base pressure – often several hundred pounds from one to another. “This Load Verifier gives you a better starting point out of the gate, or if you’ve made a quick pass on a clutch you’ve shimmed in a certain way, it will let you know where it’s at,” he noted.
Rather than keep his contraption to himself and enjoy an advantage with his combination’s setup, Donathen has decided to make his invention available to his fellow competitors, too, for the greater good. Racers who want to get their clutches confirmed and verified on Donathen Racing’s Load Verifier 4000 so they can go into the 2024 season of racing with a known number instead of an arbitrary, out-of-the-box load, can contact Tim Donathen; current rates are $150 per clutch with a turnaround time of approximately one week, not including shipping and transit times.