NHRA Warren Johnson Sunday Chicago Wrap Up: An Unlikely Culprit Cuts WJ's Day Short in Chicago

 

Event:  8th Annual Carquest Auto Parts Nationals 

Day/Date: Sunday, June 12, 2005

Location:  Route 66 Raceway, Joliet, Illinois

 

Throughout his illustrious career, GM Performance Parts Pontiac pilot
Warren Johnson has experienced just about everything that one could in
the cockpit of a NHRA Pro Stock race car.  For the most part, things
have worked out in his favor, as evidenced by his 94 national event wins
and six championships.  

 

However, in the first round of Sunday's final eliminations of the
Carquest Auto Parts Nationals in Joliet, IL, Johnson had something
completely new happen to him, and it resulted in a premature end to his
day.    

 

Facing veteran Bruce Allen, Johnson seemed to have things in his favor.
His performance had improved throughout the weekend, culminating with
his being the No. 1 qualifier for the 135th time in his career.  In
addition, "The Professor" entered the race with a perfect first round
record, and a 33-16 edge in previous races against Allen.  

 

But all that mattered little when WJ attempted to stage.  Instead of
advancing a few inches and stopping, Johnson's ride inexplicably kept
rolling, coming perilously close to crossing the starting line early.
Calling on his years of driving experience, he was able to avoid
red-lighting, but allowed his opponent to gain the advantage at the
line.  Despite posting a 6.770-second elapsed time and the second
fastest top speed of the round at 204.45 mph, it was not enough for
Johnson to run down his rival.

 

 "I knew something was wrong when I had a hard time putting it in
reverse after the burnout.  I finally had to jerk it into gear, which
shook the whole car.  I wasn't sure if we had knocked a puck off a
clutch disc or what it was, but it was obviously something mechanical.  

 

"After I staged, when I put it on the rev limiter, it wouldn't stop
rolling.  At that point, I could either let out the clutch and
red-light, or try to somehow get it off the line and give ourselves a
chance to win, so I held on to it as best as I could until I saw green.


 

"Ironically, it wasn't a bad run after the first 300 feet.  In fact, the
incremental numbers showed that if we had been able to muster a decent
sixty-foot time, our GM Performance Parts Pontiac would have run at
least a 6.73.  Unfortunately, the 6.77 didn't get it done."

 

Upon returning to the pit area, a check of the race car revealed the
failure of a very unlikely part that cost the team any real chance of
advancing.  Even with the disappointment, Johnson kept his sense of
humor and even found reason for optimism.

 

"When we checked the car afterwards, we found that we had cracked the
jam nut on the clutch linkage. This resulted in our not having any air
gap, which prevented us from stopping it from rolling.   In retrospect,
we should have known not to use that part, because it came off last
year's car that had given us so much trouble, so it probably was cursed.

 

"Fortunately, we head to Englishtown knowing that Kurt and I have two of
the fastest cars out there.  Power is not the problem.  We simply have
to eliminate the little mistakes that we've been having.  If we do that,
the rest will fall into place."