After near fatal crash, “The Kid” is ready to roll……
By Chris Rhynold
On July 4th at Black Rock Speedway, many witnessed what may have been thought to be the end of Billy Coffey’s sprint car racing career. Well, Guess Again. On September 20, Coffey made his comeback to sprint car racing on the half mile at Selinsgrove Speedway. One week later Coffey raced in his first Canadian Sprint Car Championships at Ohsweken Speedway where he finished 9th in his Ohsweken Speedway debut.
Billy Coffey started racing micro sprints at the age of 13 and has spent the last 7 seasons racing 360 sprint cars with the Empire Super Sprints where he has amassed 6 feature wins, has finished in the top five in points twice and won the Empire Super Sprint Rookie of the Year honours in 1997. Coffey has been a serious points contender the past 3 seasons and in 2004 is ready to make some changes.
The changes are coming in the form of a club change. In 2004 Coffey and the Sprinter Express team will be campaigning with the Patriot Sprint Group and running regularly at Black Rock Speedway instead of the touring with the Empire Super Sprints. Sprinter Express owners, Billy Coffey and Dwight Roth described the Patriot Sprint Group and Black Rock Speedway series as something that is in the cards for them and a lot of local sprint car teams. With so many events so close to home and still having events at other tracks that gives Billy the challenge of the different tracks, which he thrives on, it was just something they had to do. Many think, the Black Rock Speedway Sprint Series would be a walk in the park for a racer like Billy Coffey, but Billy insists otherwise. Coffey says, guys like Kyle Drum, Billy Krull, Rick Wilson and the Mal Lane cars will keep him one his toes and also with the rumours of Bobby Parrows coming back to racing and the possibility of “Mr Black Rock” George Suprick running at Black Rock make racing there a bigger challenge then ever.
From a team that started out with a Dodge Pick-Up, a 20 ft trailer with 1 car and a few spare parts, to a team with 2 complete cars, enough spare parts to build a 3rd car and a hauler to carry around the cars and spare parts. These guys really are a sponsors dream. They have a beautiful transporter, which is very and I mean very clean inside and out, and have all the equipment and resources in place to be a contender anywhere they go. I think they are ready for an assault on the 360 sprint car scene. Coffey and Roth are also looking to add another Maxim chassis to the stables in 2004 to replace the car that was destroyed at Black Rock Speedway in 2003.
Coffey may also bring other things to the table in 2004 as they may run a couple of special events with other clubs. An event at Limaland and The Canadian Sprint Car Championships at Ohsweken Speedway were mentioned but nothing is set in stone as of yet.
For the 2004 racing season Coffey is looking at chasing victory lane and chasing a championship as his goals, but in the future Billy Coffey’s goals may consist of chasing the rookie of the year title and trying to get to victory lane with the Allstar Circuit of Champions. Coffey and the Sprinter Express team would be a fine addition to the Allstar Circuit of Champions if they decided to run with the ever so prestigious club.
To learn more about Billy “The Kid” Coffey and the BTK Motorsports team, visit www.billycoffey.com .