NHRA Friday: KJ sits Second Halfway through Topeka Qualifying

Event: 15th annual NHRA O'Reilly Summer Nationals
Location:  Heartland Park Topeka
       Topeka, KS
Day/Date: Friday May 23, 2003 

During the last two seasons, Kurt Johnson struggled to tame the track at Heartland Park Topeka.  However during the first day of qualifying for this year's NHRA O'Reilly Summer Nationals, the ACDelco Racing team quickly showed that they had solved their issues with the racing surface.  On his second attempt on Friday evening, Johnson's ACDelco Cavalier powered through the quarter-mile in 6.838 seconds with a top speed of 201.76 mph, good enough for second entering Saturday's final two sessions.

"The ACDelco Cavalier went right down the track tonight, putting up a 6.83, with the low qualifier running a 6.82.  Our job now is to figure out how to make our car pick up that hundredth of a second.  It was a good run, and we're glad to be in the top half of the field, but, make no mistake about it, we want to be number one.

"We'll keep working on it tomorrow, fine-tuning the set-up, and see if we can move up that last spot.  Either way, we know we have a race horse for Sunday."