By Bill W
August 3, 2015 – For Joey Moughan, the last month and a half has been a challenge. Since winning with the MOWA series in early June, anything that could have gone bad, did. Things turned around during MOWA’s Illinois Speedweek finale at Jacksonville Speedway. The Springfield driver picked up the win. This weekend, he’ll have a new car ready to tackle Knoxville Raceway in Iowa and its “Capitani Classic” on Sunday.
After his Flora win, Joey thought things were going great until he ran into a four-leaf clover. “After we won at Flora in June, pretty much nothing has gone right,” he says. “The Monday after, I found a four-leaf clover. I’ve never found one in my life. I swear, that was the most unlucky four-leaf clover. From then on, every race I ran, someone was spinning out in front of me, we were blowing a motor or something happened. I ended up giving it to my Dad as he was mowing the lawn. Before he finished, the mower blew up on him. He ended up giving it away!”
Just about everything happened that could. “It seems that every week, I’ve been rebuilding a car,” says Joey. “Thankfully, I have some experience working at Maxim, and I could fix it every time, but it’s been tough. I never worked so hard to race so badly.”
Things started rough again for Joey at the start of Speedweek. “It was a tough week,” he says. “We started at Quincy with a severely bent rear wheel. That vibrated the brakes loose. It was a tough night. I was ready to give up. We didn’t even go to Granite City. Tommy talked me into running his car at Macon. We were running great and ran into a lapped car.”
He was planning on staying home from Jacksonville as well. “Sunday morning, I’m moping around,” says Joey. “There was no way I was going to Jacksonville. Thankfully, I have this little buddy of mine, Kale. He’s six years old and infatuated with sprint cars. I call him my crew chief. When he asked if I was going to go, I couldn’t say no. My sponsors have been really great and encouraging me too.”
Things went very well. “We were able to put things together and get on the front row of the Dash,” says Joey. “We were able to win that. Parker Price-Miller actually started out the race better than me. I got to him in traffic. I think I had a more versatile car. It was going to be a good race. This time, a lapped car spun out in front of him. I hate to win a race that way, but man, I’ve definitely lost them that way.”
The win was good for more than one reason. “It was great to come home and maintenance a car without rebuilding something,” says Joey. “Even when we won at Flora, we had a rock go through the driveline and that messed up the u-joint and the torque ball. To not have to perform surgery on a car afterwards was a real break. I think things are finally turning around.”
Joey always looks forward to Knoxville in August. “We’ve got our Knoxville motor back from Jeff Claxton,” he says. “It’s an old (Guy) Forbrook motor. I have a new car sitting there ready to put it in. We’ll run the Capitani Classic on Sunday and see where we are. If it has enough, we’ll run come back and run the Nationals with it. I’m sure it will.”
Another race close to Joey’s heart is the USAC Silver Crown event at the Springfield Mile. That will be August 22. “We’ve been busy getting the champ car fixed,” he says. “I didn’t think it was possible after our crash at Terre Haute. They always look worse than they actually are. We’ve been fixing things here and there, and for the most part, I’ve been able to fix it all myself. That will be a good day for my sponsors. That night, we’ll be running a midget for Jeff and Jill Davis and the Dana Godfrey Memorial at Macon too. It will be a busy day.”
Through it all, Joey has some great support for his team. “I have to thank my sponsors, friends and family,” he says. “They have all encouraged me and kept me going. I couldn’t do it without them. We had flipped four times in three races, so I was on a heck of a roll. Lady Luck just wasn’t on our side. I think we’re past that. We’re a low-buck team, but we’re going to give them all we have!”
Joey’s Releases
If you’d like to be added to Joey’s e-mail list, e-mail sprntcar@hotmail.com with “Joey” in the Subject Line.
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Joey and the JM Motorsports team would like to thank: Moughan Electric, Modern Paving and Scrap, Conaways Handyman Service, Jared Culbertson Transport, Inc., Ciltrak, Glenn Brothers Garage Doors, Fire and Ale, Bob Hawks Autobody, Wilson Brothers Motorsports, Seth Motsinger Motorsports, Law Automotive, Racebumpers.com, Maxim Chassis, Claxton Engines, DMI, Simpson Race Products, Butlerbuilt Seats, Ti-64 Titanium Products, Supershox, Multi-Fire Spark Plug Wires, and Engler Injection.