HiPo Joe Charles And Team Z Motorsports Join Forces For 2014

The NMRA‘s Coyote Stock spec-engine class has absolutely exploded since its inception in 2012, with reports coming in nearly every week about new cars and old competitors lining up to take their shot at one of the hottest classes in sportsman drag racing today. But we can’t count out 2012 class champion HiPo Joe Charles – the Georgia resident missed out on repeating his title reign last season with Shane Stymiest dominating the class over the course of six events, winning four of them. 

So in the interest of improving his program, Charles has stripped his championship-winning machine down to a bare shell over the 2013/14 winter. A complete rebuild is underway thanks to longtime sponsor Tim Matherly of MV Performance and Jason Carnes at Carnes Customs, who recently covered the chassis in a splash of Sonic Blue paint while fitting it with 2003 Cobra body parts for a new and improved look.

Charles has also joined forces with Dave Zimmerman and the gang at Team Z Motorsports for a revamp of the car’s suspension both front and rear.

“The suspension that is currently on the rear of the car has been on it for ten years since it was built, and the car was campaigned by Tim Matherly for a number of years in the old Real Street class. A lot has changed in the last ten years, and there have been many technological advancements made by the guys at Team Z which we feel will be a big step up for our program. It was time to bring the car up to date. In Coyote Stock, we fight for improvements measuring down to the thousandth of a second, and I feel like we can make solid half-tenth or more improvements in the car’s short times, which will translate to even bigger gains at the top end of the track with these new parts,” says Charles.

Zimmerman adds, “Joe will be running all of our parts on the front and rear of his car, and we’re looking forward to this partnership. We’ll be using his car as a testbed for some new products we’re working on developing, also.”

With Matherly and Team Z in his corner, HiPo Joe Charles will be a force to contend with in the 2014 season. He better be on his game, as we hear many past NMRA champions are joining the fray in Coyote Stock this year.