Written by Mary Lendzion
Photos by NMRA Staff
Jacob Lamb likes to be challenged.
He sees it as an opportunity to explore every avenue and ensure that everything he is doing is giving him the best chance of success, and for over a decade, that admirable approach has served him well in NMRA Coyote Stock.
In that very competitive category, all racers must have cars that weigh a minimum of 3,000 pounds, have a sealed Coyote engine, and 1.750” headers, with 28X10.5 or smaller slicks under them. The racers run VP C10 fuel. Lamb appreciates that, and is all in for that.
Despite some struggling to get his Mustang to launch and leave the starting line consistently and cleanly in 2022, Lamb pulled off a best of 9.76 in competition and 9.66 in testing with his Gen III Coyote engine, G-Force G101A transmission, Ram clutch, UPR suspension and Menscer Motorsports-massaged shocks. He also secured an impressive seventh-place finish in points.
“There are so many good racers in the class, and the class is so competitive that you have to constantly look for an edge, mostly with the suspension and clutch set-up,” said Lamb, who appears to have his wheelies down to a science. “In addition to working on the suspension and clutch set-up last year, we were trying to dial in our new Gen III Coyote engine, which makes more power than our previous Coyote engine, to find the sweet spot.”
Armed with all of the data he carefully collected last year, Lamb turned his focus to winter work. He freshened his clutch, changed his LAT oil and put a new set of Mickey Thompson slicks under his car.
While he had been relying on older gauges in his car, he moved to a new RacePak IQ3 dash.
“The new RacePak dash lets me monitor my data in real time,” said Lamb. “Would you believe I didn’t even have a tach in the car? I didn’t really need it because I have a shift light.”
With support from fellow racers Greg, Chad and Damien Stephens, Lamb, who is part of their Dirty Bird Racing team, made plans to attend the 29th Annual Ryno Classifieds NMRA Spring Break Shootout presented by Nitto in early March at Orlando Speed World Dragway in Florida. He qualified in the fifth spot with a 9.84, and won the first round of eliminations with a .001 reaction time and a 9.83, but spun the tires at the hit and lost in the second round of eliminations.
“My crew chief, Billy Fint, wasn’t able to come to the race with me, but Brian McFarland was helping me dial in the new clutch, and Keith Stevens was helping me with starting line duties,” said Lamb. “Qualifying went well, but then we got too aggressive for the second round of eliminations, and I spun the tires. It was very frustrating, but we learned a lot, and we definitely have good data and something to work with this year.”
Lamb also has support from fellow Coyote Stock competitors Tim Matherly of MV Performance, Adam Cox and Mark Anderson, and the longtime friends share valuable information and bounce ideas off of each other throughout the year.
“We try to help each other go quicker and faster,” said Lamb. “We talk about clutch and suspension adjustments, among other things. Honestly, I’m so close with all these guys that I consider them family.”
Currently, Lamb, who proudly flies banners for The Parts Farm, is going over his car to make sure he is good to go for the Street Car Shootout Series on April 7, 2023 at Ohio Valley Dragway in Kentucky, followed by the NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport, April 14-16 at Rockingham Dragway in North Carolina.
“I’m hoping for more consistency off the starting line in time for the race in North Carolina,” said Lamb. “Sure, I would like to go faster, too, but right now, my focus is on consistency.”
