Rising Kentuckian gets most out of Crate engine
By Mike Sullivan
DirtonDirt.com correspondent
Todd Coffman often fields a Crate Late Model engine against open-competition engines. (dt52photos.com)
For those who knew Todd Coffman’s parents Donnie and Sharon growing up, it would be a no-brainer to see his future as being a frequent visitor to victory lane at central Kentucky tracks. After all, Todd’s father for years served as a photographer snapping front straightaway pictures between races. And initially the youngster opted to try his hand at the photo game with aspirations of someday becoming a racer himself.
“I grew up around racing my whole life and loved it,” the 26-year-old Junction City, Ky., driver said. “And I was making good money taking pictures at Junction City and Bardstown but I wanted to race so I saved my picture money and bought a bomber car.”
Doing double-duty as a racer and track photographer, Coffman got in the routine of pulling off the track, removing the helmet and grabbing his camera.
“It was nothing to get out of the car and be standing there in a driving suit with the guy who just won the race I was in. But I finally stopped taking pictures when it was sort of creating a conflict of taking pictures of guys that I’d be selling them and then beating them on the track,” he said. “I don’t know. It kinda seemed like I was taking their money or something. Mom and dad were glad when I stopped, too, because they got back to taking pictures and doing their thing.”
Fast forward a few years and the aspiring youngster moved to the fledgling Crate Late Model division driving a C.J. Rayburn Race Car he purchased from Jeff Harrod and quickly found success before literally losing everything in racing.
“That car was one that Jimmy Owens had driven when he drive for Harrod and it was a good car. I think we won like 12 races in it,” Coffman said. “Then it all got stolen and I lost everything in racing that I owned. All that was found was my trailer and it was gutted. People thought it was an insurance job, but I didn’t have insurance on any of it. The place they found it had a locked gate, but nothing was ever done about it. I mean, how many people could have a key to that place?”
Down on his racing career, a trip to East Bay Raceway Park with the Harrod Racing team and then driver Don O’Neal worked out to be an opportunity to get back behind the wheel of a Late Model, thanks to Rayburn, the Whiteland, Ind., chassis builder.
“I went to lunch with C.J. and he told me to come up there and he’d get a car together,” Coffman said. “I go up there and he pulls this old piece of junk looking thing out of the weeds and we put it together and I wound up winning a bunch of races with it.”
While establishing himself as a top Crate racer in Kentucky, Coffman was among several Crate drivers who were forced to make a decision when Larry Yantz sold his lease to the Ponderosa Speedway.
“At the time we were having 15 to 18 cars, and then Larry got out of the Ponderosa and the guy who had it first said he was going to do away with the Crates, so a lot of the guys I raced with sold their stuff,” Coffman said. “Then they wound up having a crate class and about six guys showed up. Eventually they made us race with the Supers.”
Still winning races at the Richmond Raceway and Lake Cumberland Speedway with his Crate entry, Coffman entered the 2012 campaign with a Rocket Chassis and still a GM 604 crate engine under the hood.
“I’d kind of like to have a big engine but I’m afraid I couldn’t afford it,” Coffman said. “Right now I’m running with the Super guys and it’s not costing me near what it is those guys.”
Entering his first race of the year at the Ponderosa Speedway’s Indiana Late Model Series Crate special, Coffman opened his year with a fifth-place finish. From there he’s picked up a single win at Richmond, but has been a picture of top-five consistency keeping his mind focused on making himself and his race car better.
“We’ve run 13 races and had only one DNF. The worst finish we’ve had has been the fifth in the crate race. All of the other seconds, thirds, fourths and win was with the super guys,” he said. “One thing with a Crate car is you have to keep it so free through the corners because if you get it bound up it’ll kill you. I try to keep my car pretty simple with what we’re doing. I don’t believe in listening to a lot of people and trying everything you hear. I talk with Jeff Harrod and work with him on some stuff but that’s about it.”
With top-five finishes in special events at Richmond and the Ponderosa, Coffman’s most notable runner-up finish came behind $10,000 winner Mike Marlar at the Mac Metals-sponsored Lake Cumberland Classic in Burnside, Ky.
“For what I got for second at Lake Cumberland, I basically paid for my motor,” Coffman said. “Unless you win the Dream, you’re not gonna pay for your (open-competition) motor in one race.”
Even though he hears whispers of cheating amid his success, the youngster simply turns a deaf ear and goes to work on his race car.
“I usually hear something about once a week,” Coffman said. “We’ve had our stuff looked at by the Indiana Late Model Series people and they’re about as strict as they come. I’m going to Eldora this week for the $5,000-to-win deal up there and you know they’re not going to let a guy cheat. I normally don’t pay too much attention to it.”
And while he’s open to offers to go Super Late Model racing, Todd Coffman is content doing his own thing.
“I don’t know if the Super guys accept me or not, but they race me OK. I think it makes me a better racer because I’m having to keep my car so free and get everything I can out of a 450-horsepower motor while they’ve got about 250 more than me. I think with as good as we’ve run this year, they don’t count me out.”
