Joe Charles and his wife Kelly are busy managing a growing business, Charles felt he couldn’t devote the time needed to keep the car competitive. One guy that will be able to keep the car competitive is Tim Matherly.

Back in the days of the NMRA Real Street class, the show was Bruce Hemminger vs Tim Matherly. Yes, toward the end of the class you had guys like Jim Breese, Craig Baldwin, Jay Meagher, Dave Ginter, Michael Washington, and many others, but when it came down to it, the show was about if Tim would be able to thwart Hemminger’s nitrous-motivated Four-Eye coupe.

The two would go back and forth. One would make a class-deflating pass, only for the other to follow up with an even quicker pass. They swapped records, and class championships to make for one of the most watched battles in NMRA history. This went on for a couple years toward the end of the class’ existence. Once the class came to an end because of lack of participants, Hemminger focused on his career, while Matherly stepped up to the Renegade ranks in his 2010-bodied GT.

You can see Tim Matherly behind the car with Charles at the wheel at this year’s Spring Break Shootout. He’s never been to far away from the car while Charles raced it. Matherly won several Real Street championships in this car before building a 2010 car, and Charles taking over the car.

Matherly is known for banging gears, so he maintained a stick combination for Renegade, but never really could challenge the front runners, and not being at the front doesn’t sit too well with him.

Meanwhile, recently Hemminger has been more active helping Drew Lyons in Coyote Stock, with great results. Lyons’ program has improved substantially this year under the tutilage of Hemminger. He even put together a Coyote Stock combination for his existing ’86 coupe, and has been testing to further be able to assist Lyons to see what works and what doesn’t without tearing apart Lyons’ car at every race.

Coyote Stock, in the meantime, has become somewhat stagnant. It’s not that we want to see fist-fights after every round, but the class could use some excitement. Aside from a Facebook jab here and there, or making fun of Carlos Sobrino chasing his runaway car out of the trailer, it hasn’t been must-see TV.

Matherly has already found a buyer for his Renegade car in his preparation for getting into Coyote Stock. The above video shows what we hope to see again, just like old times.

So why would we post the above video? Well, here’s exactly what the class needed. Tim Matherly has purchased Joe Charles’ Coyote Stock car, and will be racing it this weekend at the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing. And as many of you already know, Bruce Hemminger will also have his car at the race. Though no official announcement has been made by Hemminger, he’s not bringing the car to put it in the car show. There’s only one reason a competitor brings a race car to the track…that is to race. All roads lead to Hemminger racing his car at Joliet. C’mon, both Matherly and Hemminger with race cars at the same event?!?! You know you’re about to see some racing.

With Matherly and Hemminger both in Coyote Stock, that will force everyone to step up their game, and we can’t wait to see Matherly and Hemminger in the lanes side-by-side once again. Now who wants to see some racing?