NHRA Kurt Johnson Saturday Joliet Update: KJ's Up and Down Day Places Him Second in Chicago

KJ's Up and Down Day Places Him Second in Chicago

 

Event:  8th Annual Carquest Auto Parts Nationals 

Day/Date: Saturday, June 11, 2005

Location:  Route 66 Raceway, Joliet, Illinois

 

Kurt Johnson entered the second day of qualifying for the Carquest Auto
Parts Nationals with two specific goals.  First, the ACDelco Cobalt
pilot wanted to improve his starting position from Friday by one spot in
order to capture the 24th No. 1 qualifying position of his NHRA career.
Second, he looked to score his fourth win in the King Demon Crown, the
annual Pro Stock all-star race pitting the top eight qualifiers from the
previous year.

 

Facing rival and provisional No. 1 qualifier Greg Anderson in the
opening round of the special event, Johnson put himself in a good
position to accomplish both items, combining a nearly-perfect .001
reaction time with a lighting-fast 6.769-second, 204.08 mph pass to
trailer Anderson, who had come in as the No. 1 seed.  This not only
advanced KJ to the semifinals of the $50,000 race, but also ascended him
to the No. 1 qualifying position for Sunday's final eliminations.

 

Unfortunately, the next round would not be as kind.  First, he
encountered speed-robbing tire shake in his run against David Connolly,
slowing him to a 6.835-second elapsed time and allowing his opponent to
narrowly edge him at the finish line.  Moments later, Johnson's father
recorded a 6.762-second pass to claim the top starting position, with
Kurt slotted in the second position.

 

Despite the initial disappointment, the Johnson crew quickly realized
that it had been a productive day, and that they had put themselves in a
good position to claim their 29th NHRA national event win.

 

"Naturally, we're disappointed that we didn't win the Demon, but, in the
overall picture, it's been a good day.  We leave tonight knowing we have
an ACDelco Cobalt that can win the race tomorrow.

 

"Unfortunately, things just didn't work out for us today.  The way this
car is set up is entirely new since we replaced quite a few components
in the back before we came here.  I guess we've still got a few things
to learn.  It looked good on the first run yesterday afternoon, was a
little slow in the evening session, and shone brightly on the first run
today.  

 

"We just never figured it would react the way it did this afternoon.  It
was ugly.  It just locked the clutch up and spun and shook, slowing us
down by seven hundredths and costing us the race.  But that's behind us
now.  Today's performance put us in a very good position for tomorrow's
final eliminations.  We'll take a look at our notes, see what we need to
do and get it hooked up.  The bottom line is that if we all do our jobs,
it will be our day."