NHRA Kurt Johnson Friday Qualifying: A Long Friday Finds KJ Fifth in Memphis

 A Long Friday Finds KJ Fifth in Memphis

 

Event:  19th Annual O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals

Day/Date: Friday, August 18, 2006

Location:  Memphis Motorsports Park, Millington, TN

 

The first day of qualifying for the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals was
marred by an unexpected downpour which soaked Memphis Motorsports Park
just before the first professional qualifying session.  This delayed the
start of time trials by almost five hours, which forced NHRA officials
to limit the number of Friday attempts to only one.  Although the delay
allowed temperatures, which had skyrocketed to over 100 degrees in the
afternoon, to drop into the 80's, racers still had to deal with
horsepower-robbing humidity as well as a totally green racetrack,
putting crew chiefs to the test.

 

Even though this is only the second race for Kurt Johnson and his
ACDelco Racing team with their new Cobalt, they were able to make the
most of the single attempt.  Running in the less-preferred right hand
lane, Johnson's car pulled to the extreme left from the start, forcing
him to display his considerable driving skills in order to save the run.
His efforts were rewarded with a 6.784-second, 203.03 mph, which slotted
Johnson in the fifth position heading into Saturday's final attempts.

 

 "Tonight was just a roll of the dice for all of us.  We had made
numerous changes to the suspension and carburetion before coming here
and decided to leave the car as is, simply because we didn't know what
the track would give us.   

 

"I'm really quite pleased with how our ACDelco Cobalt responded.  It
didn't make a straight run, and was out of the groove the entire run,
which seemed almost fitting considering we were in the bad lane.  Even
so, we ended up fifth and gathered some valuable tuning information, so
we're not totally unhappy.

 

"For tomorrow, our focus will be on picking up on the four cars ahead of
us.  We'll make a few changes to help it go straight, and if it does
that, we should have a player for Sunday."