Coyote Stock Racer Jacob Lamb Dialed-In for NMRA Season-Opener

Ever since he earned the NMRA G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock championship in 2017, Jacob Lamb has been eager to back it up.

He came close with a second-place finish in the category in 2018, which made him even more motivated going into 2019, but his Mustang wasn’t as energetic as he had hoped it would be early in the race season.

“The car wasn’t running quite right at the first race of the year in Florida, and we tried everything, but we couldn’t figure out what was wrong,” said Lamb, who relies on a Gen II Coyote engine with a JLT Performance cold air intake, G-Force G101A transmission and UPR suspension components. “We didn’t qualify well, and then I lost in the first round of eliminations, and that was the first time I had lost in the first round in years.”

But things started to improve for Lamb at the fourth event on last year’s NMRA tour, the NMRA Ford Motorsport Nationals in June at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania.

“The NMRA gave Coyote Stock racers the option to upgrade cam phasers at that race, and I chose to do it because I felt like mine were bad and that upgrading them would help my car run better,” said Lamb. “So, my crew and I pulled the entire front of the engine to install the new cam phasers, and we did it in about three hours.”

With that, Lamb’s Mustang gained momentum.

“The cam phasers helped,” said Lamb, who added that around the same time, he began offering his engine different types of oil before choosing LAT oil purchased through fellow racer Rick Riccardi of Riccardi Racing. “The car felt better and I could see the difference on the timeslips.”

From there, Lamb returned to the clutch set-up, transmission gear ratio and rear-end gear ratio he had previously.

“We had been making changes to those things to get the car to run better, and when it started running better with the new cam phasers, we went back to our previous set-up,” said Lamb. “We had finally figured out what the car wanted, and we stuck with it.”

Lamb, who earned a trip to the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle, a runner-up finish and a semifinal finish on his way to a second-place finish in G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock points in 2019, wasn’t in a hurry to put his car away for the winter, as he and fellow racer Tim Matherly, whom he swaps data with, headed to a test session to further fine-tune.

“After our test session, I have everything the way I want it,” said Lamb, who has turned in a best of 10.26 and 129 mph in G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock trim. “I just added a few sensors to the RacePak data logger.”

With that, Lamb’s car is buttoned up and he’s ready to bolt to the NMRA’s season-opening 26th Annual Nitto NMRA Spring Break Shootout, Feb. 27-March 1 at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.

“Tim (Matherly) and I would both like to earn the championship this year, but we’d be happy if one of us earned the championship and one of us earned a second-place finish,” said Lamb, whose crew also includes Billy and Matt Fint.

Fans who can’t be at the 26th Annual Nitto NMRA Spring Break Shootout, Feb. 27-March 1 at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida, can see the action broadcasted on SpeedVideo.com with support from presenting sponsor Edelbrock along with Vortech Superchargers, COMP Cams, ATI Performance Products, ProCharger, GForce Performance and Flying A Motorsports.

 (Photos courtesy of NMRA)

About the author

Mary Lendzion

Formerly a writer at the Detroit Free Press, Mary Lendzion writes for Power Automedia, NMCA and NMRA, is the director of media and public relations for Summit Motorsports Park and is happiest in the driver’s seat of her Mustang.
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