Coyote Mach - Randy Soper by RPMMAG

Randy Soper can pinpoint the very day that his love for cars started

He was just 5 years old. “While playing in my grandparents’ front yard one day I heard a strange sound coming from down the road. It was loud then quiet, loud then quiet again. Suddenly it was loud again with a squealing sound and it was getting closer. In no time at all I saw this gold color car with a black top and black stripe around the back of it racing down the road at a high rate of speed. As it went down the road, I lost sight of it but could still hear it. Suddenly, I heard squealing tires and it came back again going very fast past my grandparents’ house.

It slowed and once again I heard it coming down the road but this time, nearly at idle. It pulled in the driveway and I remember wondering who its crazy driver was? Unexpectedly, my dad stepped out of the car. It was at that point my love of cars began. At the time I did not know what the car was, but I knew it was cool. A few years later I found out it was, 1969 Dodge Charger RT/SE 440 with 727 automatic he purchased for $800,” Randy recalled with a smile.

I believe the bright Yellow is the best part of the car because it stands out among the other cars. Plus, starting out the new season with the 28” tires on the back was different from the other cars...

Randy SopeR

A total of 763 screaming yellow Mach Ones were produced in 2004 with the majority of them built with manual transmissions.

Race front seats and a rear seat delete help bring weight down. Randy also uses an RJS 5-point safety harness, Grant steering wheel, RacePak IQ3 dash and Spaghetti Menders switch panel and wiring.

Fast forward almost a decade and Soper was already getting some seat time, “At 14 I started driving my mom’s ’76 Nova with a 3 speed on the tree,” he added. Not too long afterwards he bought his first car, a 1972 Chevelle with 350ci and automatic as a daily driver and race car on the weekends. Racing was on the street to start with and would

later move to the local drag strip. “As funny as it sounds, back in 1990 it was the fastest car at my high school running 13.90’s with a small carburetor, aluminum intake, headers, shift kit and 4.56 gears.”

In 1992 Randy moved on from the Chevelle to a 1989 Mustang GT with a 5 speed. I mean, who didn’t have a Mustang 5.0 at some point?

Team Z Motorsports fabricated the cage and installed the subframe connectors. The chassis carries an 8.50 certification.

The Coyote Stock class is exactly how it sounds. An OEM Sealed Coyote Crate Engine: Part # M-6007-M50S (GEN1) M-6007-M50SA (GEN2) or M-6007-M50SB (GEN3) are the only engines permitted in NMRA Coyote Stock. Randy is running the GEN 3 version.

Randy Soper’s 2004 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Coyote Stock Class Drag Car

Body and Paint:

2004 Ford Mustang Mach 1, Screaming Yellow, H.O. Fibertrends hood. Optic Armor windshield.

Chassis Modifications:

Team Z Motorsports 8.50 cage & subframe connectors Suspension:

All Team Z Motorsports suspension components, Strange front struts, and rear shocks.

Engine:

Sealed stock Gen3 Coyote engine with ATI balancer, Kooks Headers, X-pipe and Flowmaster Outlaw Mufflers.

Induction & Fuel Delivery:

Stock Gen3 intake and throttle body, JLT Performance CAI, stock fuel rails with Aeromotive fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator and filter.

Power Adder:

All natural! Transmission:

GForce 101A 4 speed manual, Long Shifter, Quick Time bellhousing, ACT clutch.

Rear:

Team Z Motorsports lightweight 9” housing, Mark Williams axles, 3 member and Richmond 4.xx gears. Brakes:

TBM Brakes all around Tires & Wheels:

M/T 26” ET Drag fronts, M/T 28/10.5-15 ET Drag Slicks, 2 sets of wheels. Weld Racing wheels and RC Components wheels. Interior:

Kirky front seats and rear seat delete. RJS 5-point safety harness. Grant steering wheels. RacePak IQ3 dash. Spaghetti Menders switch panel and wiring.

ET & MPH:

Personal best et 9.68 best mph 141.77

Thanks To:

I’d like to thank my girl and crew chief Toni M. Harbin. She makes sure I have everything I need from our tech card, entry tickets, hotels booked, food, beer (for the after racing social time) and my safety gear. She also checks tire pressure pushes the car to the lanes with the 4-wheeler and stages me at the starting line.

My family and friends for making the long trips to help and support me.

Tim Donathen at Donathen Racing who has been there every step of the way from the build to track support at every race since the beginning.

My Team Timmy teammates for lending a helping hand when needed. Kevin McMullin, Chad Stephens, Tim Donathen. This group of guys are helpful, knowledgeable, resourceful, and together we’ve all been successful and have had lots of fun.

Dave Born of Ford Performance for supporting the whole Coyote Stock class.Walking the pits, stagging lanes, getting to know the drivers and listening to and taking concerns back to Ford.

All the other Coyote Stock racers who have helped and shared their knowledge when I’ve had questions or need a spare part. This is the greatest group of racers who all support each other at every race. This is the best class to race in in my opinion.

Team Z motorsports for their continued support from the start. Your quality parts and expertise are what makes you the best in the business. “Built for racers by racers”!!

Driven Racing Oil and Bill Alexander for coming aboard this year with our oil and lubrication needs. Trust the science.

269 Motorsports from our hometown for the support and always sharing our accomplishments on your page.

GForce Racing Transmissions and Paul Long for always making sure the trans is in tip top shape. Paul is always the man when you have any questions or issues.

Thank you everyone, none of this would be possible without your help and support.

This one was the first of 6 Mustangs Randy owned and in 2002 he purchased a yellow Mustang GT. “I built this car to run Pure Street in the NMRA and I called it ‘The Outlaw’.” Soper would race it in Pure Street from ’03 to ’06 and then returned to street racing and local track fun, eventually selling it, which is something he had regretted until the Mach 1 came along. Admittedly, since he didn’t make every event, his time racing in Pure Street was for the enjoyment of running in a structured class and to take away as much knowledge as possible from the experience, something that would come in handy a few years down the road.

The next step was a 2007 Shelby GT500 that Randy would take from a bone stock midtwelve-second car to a 9.96 at 140MPH with simple bolt-on parts and learning how to drive it. Then, in 2016 Randy’s brother Jeff called him about a co-worker’s Screaming Yellow ’04 Mach

One thing NMRA Coyote Stockers are known

...giant

Randy kicked off the season with a victory at the 28th Annual NMRA Spring Break Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park

A build fulfilled

1 that was up for sale.

“I had to take a look at it, and the next day I drove it home,” Randy said. The Mach 1 was all stock except the exhaust with 37k on the odometer and he drove the car just a handful of times before taking it apart. The next stop for the Mach was Team Z Motorsports where an 8.50 certified cage and through-floor subframe connectors were installed. When the car returned home, Randy treated it to a silver paint job on the cage and yellow finish underneath to match the shiny side, and also installed all Team Z Motorsports suspension. The question now was what exactly was he going to do with the car? It sat for a year, then, something hit him; “I was talking to my friend Clair Stewart and he was telling me about the Coyote Stock class he was racing in. That’s all it took, Clair introduced me to Tim Donathen at Donathen Racing and

in late 2018 I took the car to Tim’s to help me finish the build. With Tim living 2.5 hours south of me I would go down on the weekends to work on the car, and 8 months later we had a brand-new Coyote Stock class car.”

Finishing the Mustang just the week before the NMRA event at Route 66 in Joliet in 2019, and with zero dyno or shakedown passes, Randy and his crew headed straight to the race. Right off the trailer he ran a 10.86 and after finally getting some test passes in during the event to learn the car, try

and dial it in and correct a few driver mistakes, Randy would squeak into the field, qualifying 15th in a 16 car lineup. After making just a suspension adjustment, they were headed back to the lanes for the first round of eliminations. “We had no expectations here,” explained Soper. “We just wanted to make a clean pass against the 2 qualifier, number who just happened to be my friend Clair Stewart. The car responded off the line with a huge wheelie, my first experience every

Randy built the beautiful Mach 1 and then it sat for a year while he wondered what he was going to do with it. He ended up finding the perfect fit in the Coyote Stock class where he has made some serious noise.

The use of 28-inches tall by 10.6-inche wide or smaller bias-ply slicks is mandated for all Coyote Stock competitors.

I would have to say my most memorable experience was when we debuted the car at Route 66 in Joliet 2019. It was a rough start with not having any testing time prior to the race, so making it to the semifinals was an amazing and humbling experience.

with wheelies, and we won the round, and ended up going to the semifinals in our first race! And then backed that up by going to the semis again in our second event!”

In 2020 Randy finished 5th in points during the Pandemic stricken season and for 2021 he laid down the 2nd fastest pass of the year in Bradenton with a 9.68 at 138mph and set the mph record in St. Louis with 141.77 mph. After making it to the semifinals in

Bradenton, the finals in St. Louis and the finals in Norwalk, Randy and his team finished 3rd in points for the year!

2022 started off with a bang for Soper, taking out some serious competition at Bradenton Motorsports Park. He cut consistent lights while his Mach performed flawlessly, and at the end of the day Randy parked his Stang in the winner circle at the season opener! This may just be the year

for the championship for Randy Soper and his team.

No matter how you slice it, building a 9-second small tire car with most of its original equipment intact is tough enough, but doing it with stringent class rules that demand a basically stock engine and no power adder is a testament to the hard work and ingenuity that class racers put into their programs to win races.