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Paultanis Hopes to Hold Onto G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock Records Through the Season

Posted By: Mary Lendzion

By Mary Lendzion

When the NMRA G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock category was created in 2012, the race was on to see how much power could be coaxed from naturally aspirated Coyote crate engines.

The numbers that drivers, who can't dive into their sealed engines, continue to put on the board are impressive, and among those drivers is Frank Paultanis.

Soon after achieving an admirable fifth-place finish in NMRA G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock points last year, Paultanis said simply that he wanted to do even better this year, and by all accounts, he has.

At the series first event of the year, the 26th Annual Nitto NMRA Spring Break Shootout, which was Feb. 27-March 1 at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida, he powered to a 9.92 and 132.99 mph to lead qualifying, set elapsed-time and top speed records and to become the first driver to break into the 9s in the category.

He wasn't finished yet, as he went on to a 10.02, 10.03, 10.06 and 10.09 on his way to the Aerospace Components Winner's Circle in his Mustang which is powered by a Gen II Coyote engine, G-Force Racing Transmissions G101-A with a Fidanza clutch, and rolls on UPR, Racecraft and Strange suspension components and Mickey Thompson tires.

It wasn't just one thing that made it happen, said Paultanis, who said he has had help from Clair Stewart, Eddie Bennett, Tim Donathen, Matt Harget, Andy Ransford, Kevin McMullin, Randy Soper, John Leslie Jr., his wife, Dawn, and daughter, Danielle, as well as Stifflers Chassis and Suspension, Lucas Oil, UPR Products, Ford Performance and JLT Performance. Eddie Bennett took the lead in tuning the chassis at the track and making small changes to put down the numbers that it did in Bradenton. We just crept up on it, and when paired with the good weather there, it was a rocket. Being the only 9-second Coyote Stock car in Bradenton showed my team and I we were successful.

Paultanis, who currently has the lead in G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock points, will attempt to hold onto that lead at the 2nd Annual NMRA Gateway Rumble, May 14-16, at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois. As for holding onto the 9.92 and 132.99 mph records, he knows he'll have his work cut out for him as the season progresses as other drivers in the category are knocking on the 9-second door, and are as determined as he was to get there, but he also feels that the weather conditions were more ideal for making record-setting passes at the Florida event than they're likely to be until the final event of the season, the Nitto NMRA All-Ford World Finals and Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival, Oct. 1-4 at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

I think I should be able to hold onto the record, said Paultanis.


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