{"id":35971,"date":"2020-03-20T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=35971"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:04","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:04","slug":"the-couple-that-races-together-stays-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2020\/03\/the-couple-that-races-together-stays-together.html","title":{"rendered":"The Couple That Races Together Stays Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They say a\ncouple that spends time together stays together. For Mike and Paula Cotten, that\ntime has been decades of drag racing fast Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> vehicles on drag strips across the\ncountry. These high school sweethearts began dating in the early 1970s when\nMike was a senior and Paula was a junior. Mike, being the Mopar gearhead he\nwas, took Paula to the drags and that\u2019s where their journey began, one\nquarter-mile at a time. Now, decades later, and after being married for 44 years,\nthis racing couple hits about 11 to 15 NHRA National Events and eight\ndivisional races a year all across the country. To say Mike and Paula are\npassionate about drag racing would be an understatement. Now in their mid-60s\nand showing no signs of slowing down after working hard their whole lives, the\nCottens would rather be thrashing on racecars, doing burnouts and drag racing\nthan hanging out in a retirement community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mike\u2019s love\naffair with fast muscle cars began when he was still a youth in Oklahoma. \u201cMy\nfirst Mopar was a 1973 Duster 340 that I bought brand new when I was 18 years\nold and drove it through college. Paula and I actually went on our honeymoon to\nSt. Louis in the Duster 340,\u201d said Mike. Ironically, during the Cotten\u2019s\nengagement, their hope chest was filled with racecar parts for Mike\u2019s Duster\n340. Paula\u2019s mom was not too happy about this but as it turned out, it was not\na waste. \u201cI was a bracket racing champion at our local track and then got\nserious and turned it into an AHRA stocker in 1978, and an NHRA stocker in\n1983. I am proud that I won at least one AHRA, IHRA and NHRA national event with that car and well over 60 NHRA\nclass wins,\u201d said Mike. Soon, Mike and Paula built another Duster 340 so she\ncould get behind the wheel and go head-to-head with other competitors in NHRA\u2019s\nhighly competitive Stock Eliminator class. The Cottens\u2019 matching green Dusters\nalways posed a threat to other racers as both Mike and Paula are exceptional\ndrivers and tuners. Unfortunately, the original Duster 340 that was Mike\u2019s\ndaily driver in his youth was destroyed in a racing accident in 2015 at the\nNHRA Phoenix event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the\ndemise of Mike\u2019s Duster 340, Mike and Paula still had another racecar to\ncompete with in Stock Eliminator and Mike focused more of his energy on the\n1970 Plymouth \u2018Cuda Super Stocker, powered by a Mopar 383 big block, which he purchased\nin 2004. Mike and Paula had always loved the Plymouth and Dodge E-Body cars and\nit\u2019s always been their dream to run a Plymouth \u2018Cuda in Super Stock. The\nCottens\u2019 \u2018Cuda has won numerous races and even collected a best-appearing award\nat a NHRA National Event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, what\u2019s it\nlike being on the road for over 20 weekends a year? According to Paula, life on\nthe road and racing a Super Stock \u2018Cuda 383 and the Duster 340 Stocker isn\u2019t\nthat bad. \u201cWe love traveling together and being on the road, it\u2019s the same as\nbeing at home. We still do laundry, shop for groceries and change the oil in\nthe cars. You just learn how to do this on the road.\u201d During their long travels\nacross the country, they\u2019re always discussing racing and how to increase the performance\nof the cars. Mike and Paula review what worked and what didn\u2019t work. Last year, these\ntwo we were on the road 127 days traveling to the NHRA national events and\ndivisional races in their Totorhome (for those not familiar with a Toterhome, it\u2019s a motorhome built around a\nsemi-truck chassis with the ability to tow or carry a vehicle, boat, trailer,\netc.). The Cottens, who\u2019ve competed for many years, have only raced each\nother once and that was at the NHRA Las Vegas race. \u201cI won, but I think Mike\nlet me win,\u201d smiled Paula. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since both\nMike and Paula are very competitive by nature, they have some disagreements\nwhen it comes to racing, but they\u2019re still a team. \u201cMike and I do disagree at\ntimes, but it\u2019s in a form of a discussion as Mike is easy going and rarely gets\nangry,\u201d said Paula, as she does most of the dial-in computer work during\neliminations. \u201cMike has a lot of trust in my numbers, sometimes too much. When I\u2019m\nuncomfortable with the dial in, he helps me work through my thoughts. As far as\nperformance and working on the engine or transmission, that is Mike\u2019s job and he\nloves it.\u201d But when it\u2019s crunch time during eliminations, both Mike and Paula\nare moving fast as they each have a specific job to do to get the racecar\nprepped and ready for the next round of eliminations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not too long ago, the Cottens bought a 2019 Dodge Challenger R\/T Scat Pack 1320 that Paula\u2019s been having a blast with. \u201cWe are having a great time with the modern muscle car. We\u2019ve had old muscle cars our whole lives, but the 1320 has been a blast to race,\u201d smiled Paula. \u201cThe 1320 Challenger has been better than we expected. Mike says this is his racecar when he is 70 years old.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s plain to\nsee that Mike and Paula will forever be a couple that truly loves each other\nand shares the same dreams and passion. They grew up with strict parents that\ntaught them right from wrong and instilled in them a strong work ethic. The\nCottens have had an amazing journey these past four decades. They might be \u201ctechnically\u201d\nretired, but they\u2019re not slowing down anytime soon. For Mike and Paula, it\u2019ll\nalways be pedal to the metal and going wide open throttle at dragstrips across\nthe country. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They say a couple that spends time together stays together. For Mike and Paula Cotten, that time has been decades of drag racing fast Mopar\u00ae vehicles on drag strips across the country. These high school sweethearts began dating in the early 1970s when Mike was a senior and Paula was a junior. Mike, being the Mopar gearhead he was, took Paula to the drags and that\u2019s where their journey began, one quarter-mile at a time. Now, decades later, and after being married for 44 years, this racing couple hits about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":35980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2624],"tags":[528,615],"class_list":["post-35971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owners-clubs","tag-drag-racing","tag-nhra"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/racingcouplefeature.png","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35971"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36001,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35971\/revisions\/36001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}