HiPo Joe Charles, more affectionately known as Hippo Joe, has been in the Mustang drag racing game for longer than he probably cares to admit. That means he knows a good season starts in the off-season. Therefore, when a fellow NMRA Coyote Stock racer told him about a private test session at Bradenton Motorsports Park, Joe jumped at the chance. “Jason Sloan and I went to Bradenton to test January third, and that’s the earliest I’ve ever tested,” Charles says. To get the car ready for the test session he took the cover off the car, washed it, and dragged it to Bradenton.

However, Charles and sloan had a plan. The main focus of the test session was to test a new Ram clutch, which is going to be known as the HiPo Joe Clutch. We’re not kidding about the name. Ram hasn’t come up with a name for the clutch as of this writing. However, it is available to anyone. Just call up Ram, and they’ll know for which clutch you are asking.

Anyway, back to the test session. Once they arrived at Bradenton Motorsports Park, Charles and Sloan had the clutch out of the car and on the ground in 25 minutes. They made one clutch adjustment. Besides that one adjustment, nothing else was touched. “I like to make 2-3 passes on a single adjustment,” Charles says. We don’t think he needed to make any other adjustments, judging how the car performed. The very first pass was a 10.35 at 129.57. That was the very first pass with the new clutch, in abnormally warm (even for Florida standards) January weather. In total, Charles only made 3 passes.

Now, to put that first test pass in perspective, Charles’s 10.29 at 130 mph at the NMRA World Finals happened at midnight, and we all know how the weather is at Beech Bend Raceway at midnight in October. If you don’t, it’s perfect for drag racing, we’ll just say that. The conditions at Bradenton weren’t as good, but the elapsed time was right there.

The second pass Charles ran a 10.34 at 129.68 mph. For the last pass he hot-lapped the car right back into the lanes with no cool down. That last pass the car ran 129.72 mph. Remember, besides that initial adjustment, no other adjustments were made. As you know, Coyote Stock engines and PCMs are sealed due to the rules, so you’re not allowed to tune the engine. Basically, in Coyote stock, you tune the clutch and suspension, that’s all you can touch. Clearly, Charles, sloan, and the guys at MV Performance have a few things figured out for 2015.

Oh yeah, we didn’t post an elapsed time on Joe’s last run because he wouldn’t give it to us. Guess it was quicker than a 10.34.