THE CHAMPIONS ISSUE
GALOT Motorsports Park Mad Mule
Jay Cox
At the start of the 2016 season, GALOT Motorsports Park announced the Mad Mule Pro Mod Series. The new series was designed to include turbocharged, nitrous-assisted and supercharged combinations and featured a tight eightcar field. The series quickly exploded with an average of 20 Pro Mods trying to qualify at each event with an average bump spot of 3.86 seconds.
For Smithfield, North Carolina native Jay Cox, winning the Mad Mule championship had special meaning. The Mad Mule championship series gave Cox the opportunity to win close to home and shine in front of all his hometown friends.
“ Number one – GALOT is my home track right in my backyard and I have never had a track like that to race at,” stated Cox.
Cox was on a mission to win, and he did just that in the first Mad Mule event where he defeated three of GALOT’ s Pro Mod entries – tractor puller John Strickland, young Ty Tutterow, and PDRA Pro Boost champion Kevin Rivenbark.
“ I wanted to win all of them. We set out to win all of them, but we went down there and ran the
GALOT cars all three rounds and it was hard,” Cox explained.“ I knew that if you were going to win you had to be on top of your game.”
Momentum was everything, and Cox did what he needed to do to win a championship: win rounds! When rain shortened the season, it was a battle of Jay Cox and GALOT’ s own John Strickland. In the final race of the 2016 Mad Mule season, Cox used the early season momentum to gain one more round win than Strickland, narrowly crowning Cox the champion.
“ You can go run all these series you want to run, but when you come to GALOT you have the baddest blower cars, the baddest turbo cars, and the baddest nitrous cars. They are all competing for one eight-car field and to come out on top at the end of the night, that’ s an accomplishment.”
After the 2016 season was complete, Cox was thrown a curveball when his primary marketing partner, Bryant Marriner, announced he would not return for the 2017 season. Like a true champion, Cox is now more determined than ever to rise to the top again.
“ We are seeking sponsorship and if we get some sponsorship we are coming wide open,” stated Cox.“ My number one focus is to win that deal( Mad Mule) at GALOT again. It’ s my home track and I want to represent GALOT well as a champion. I want to represent all the people who work so hard over there; Dana [ Strickland ] and Mr. Earl [ Wells ].”
The 2017 Mad Mule Pro Mod Series will feature three events in March, July, and November. The rules will remain the same as last year and the Shootout will once again feature an eight-car field.
- CHARLES MYERS DI
PHOTOS: AJ PINDER, JOE McHUGH
IHRA STOCK DAN YOUNG // IHRA QUICK ROD DAVE SCHMIDT // IHRA HOT ROD DENNIS CLARK // IHRA SUPER ROD JACOB ELROD
86 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 117