Paige Coughlin follows in father’ s footsteps with move to Pro Mod By Craig Cook

Coughlin grew up bracket racing in classes like Super Comp and Top Dragster, then stepped into the world of No Prep Kings with her third-gen Camaro named“ Golden Child.” When NPK ended, she soon found a new opportunity in a familiar place: the NHRA, which debuted a new Outlaw Street class at four national events this year.

“ At the beginning of the season, we were just trying to figure out what we were gonna do,” admits Coughlin.“ The Outlaw Street stuff came up, and we’ re like,‘ Yeah, let’ s give that a try, see how it goes.’ It was fun to kind of mix those two worlds together, especially with my family coming from the NHRA, and I’ ve been the only one to kind of change it up a little bit.”

What Paige didn’ t know was that her father – three-time NHRA Pro Mod world champion Troy Coughlin Sr. – was working behind the scenes to set up a partnership with 2025 / 26 Drag Illustrated Winter Series points champion Peter Norton and his Hurricane Motorsports team, allowing Paige to pilot Norton’ s 2024 Camaro tuned by Rickie Jones. After learning of the deal roughly a week before the Shakedown, it was a whirlwind getting everything ready to race in Michigan.

“ This Pro Modified deal just came up super last minute, and I’ ve been struggling to find the words to describe how all of this feels,” Coughlin says.“ It’ s been my dream to run Pro Modified in any way, shape, or form. My dad was a three-time NHRA Pro Modified champ, and I knew that’ s what I wanted to do. I want to be just like him. When this came up, I was like,‘ Holy crap. All right, let’ s go.’

“ Between my dad, Hurricane Motorsports, Pro Line … we all just kind of put this together,” adds Coughlin.“ We drove up from Florida, grabbed all my safety stuff in Ohio, beat on over to Indiana, poured the seat, then drove here( to US 131 Motorsports Park). It’ s been a lot of work trying

to get all of that work done in such a short time frame to make this race. It doesn’ t even feel real. I don’ t know how long they’ ve been talking about it, but when I found out, it was like Christmas.”

Coughlin also admits to feeling a bit guilty about having a“ total fangirl moment” when she found out the news, as her family was having dinner to celebrate her husband Johnny Tolisano’ s birthday. But the opportunity to fulfill her dream quickly paid off. Between pre-race testing and the first qualifying session Thursday night, Coughlin laid down multiple career-best numbers. After Q1, she sat in the No. 9 position with a 3.603 at 211.57 mph. But that was only the beginning.

In Q3, Coughlin jumped to the No. 1 spot with a 3.552-second blast at 213.07 mph, which at the time was the quickest Pro Mod pass in the history of the series( event winner Paul Gargus would reset the record roughly 24 hours later with a 3.547). Despite a setback in eliminations – Coughlin was disqualified after crossing the center line in her first-round matchup with reigning MWDRS champion Aaron Wells – she quickly proved that despite being a newcomer to the class, she was not to be taken lightly.

Just one week later, Coughlin put on an even more impressive driving display at IHRA’ s $ 125,000-to-win Pro Mod Mania at Milan Dragway. In just the second event of her Pro Mod career, she advanced all the way to the semifinals, defeating Justin Swanstrom and Ed Thornton in the first two rounds before earning a bye in the quarterfinals. Coughlin ran strong in the semifinals as well, losing a close race to eventual event winner Travis Harvey, with Harvey’ s 3.618 edging out Coughlin’ s 3.629.

“ It’ s kind of insane to see the progress we have made in just two weeks, two Pro Modified races,” Coughlin says.“ It’ s hard to believe. I’ m so proud of this entire camp with Peter Norton, Hurricane Motorsports, my tuner Rickie Jones, and everybody on Team PCR – Johnny, Justin, my dad. Literally everybody part of this deal is what makes this happen. JEGS Performance … what an honor it is to be able to carry that family name on the side of this race car.”

Coughlin is eager to take the next step and park the iconic black and gold JEGS colors in the winner’ s circle. But regardless of how things play out, she knows she’ s exactly where she’ s supposed to be – finally behind the wheel of a Pro Mod.

“ This feeling of being in a Pro Modified car, it’ s so hard to top that,” Coughlin says.“ I’ ll always have a special spot for all the other cars I’ ve raced, like‘ Golden Child’. That was the first door car I ever drove. I still hold that near and dear to my heart. And my dragster I ran in Super Comp and bracket racing, that’ s where I started. That’ s where my family’ s from, those are our roots, and you can’ t forget those. But this just feels like a rite of passage, like I’ m fulfilling something that I was meant to do at some time in my life, and I’ m just so stoked I get to do it now.” DI

PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICK BELDEN AND CAPRI WESLEY