Mopar Hopes History Reveals Future Success

Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series 19th Annual Checker Schuck¹s Kragen NHRA Nationals Firebird International Raceway Chandler, Arizona

CHANDLER, Ariz. Feb. 14, 2003; The year was 1994. Pomona Raceway was the location. Two Pro Stock combatants lined up in the final round of that season¹s NHRA Automobile Club of Southern California Finals each having a shot at winning a championship. It was storybook ending to an exciting Pro Stock season. And it was all Mopar.

Mopar factory driver Darrell Alderman flashed down the quarter mile and edged out then teammate Scott Geoffrion to win his third POWERade Pro Stock World Championship, an event still considered one of the most dramatic in NHRA history.

Alderman, 53, has now reached the twilight of his illustrious career. His past few seasons have seen success, but not the consistency that has buoyed the 28-time NHRA national event winner to fourth-place on the all-time category win list. For the 2003 season however, change is in order as Alderman joins Johnson & Johnson Racing and Pro Stock veteran Allen Johnson, widely considered as one of the most consistent and best drivers in the category. The elder half of the Johnson pair engine builder and father Roy Johnson is known around the NHRA Pro Stock pits for his horsepower wizardry. Added together you have the same recipe that led Mopar lovers to rejoice nine years prior.

³I¹ve got the best shot to win a championship this year that I¹ve had since my first one,² said Alderman, who won his first NHRA Pro Stock title in 1990. ³Roy and Allen Johnson are great people and will give the team the resources it needs to win. You can see that from (Pomona) qualifying and with all the testing we¹ve done. We have three major test sessions under our belts already and that makes you feel good about fighting for a Pro Stock championship. To win a championship you have to be consistent all year long and it seems this team has all the ingredients for that.²

If Pomona¹s results are an indicator, Mopar¹s chances to challenge for a title have been bolstered. Johnson drove to the finals, while qualifying fifth and racking up a career-best elapsed time of 6.780 seconds and a career-best top speed of 204.76 mph, the second fastest in NHRA Pro Stock history. Alderman¹s Hemi-powered machine also ran well, trekking to the semifinals and capturing the third-qualifying position with a career-best elapsed time of 6.779 seconds at 203.52 mph also a career mark.

³Building momentum out of Pomona was very important to us for several reasons,² said A. Johnson, who won the event at the Atlanta Dragway last season. ³Morale, for one, makes everyone want to go back and work even harder. Number two is points. If you miss just one race, that could hurt your chances for the championship.²

The team has some changes on the horizon however, as the new Dodge Stratus R/T is slated to come on line by Gainesville (Fla.). But, the team has a strategy in place for the switchover.

³We won¹t switch cars until the Stratus is performing better than the Neon,² Johnson noted. ³To prepare for it, though, we¹re building the Stratus identical to what we are running now from a chassis standpoint. The cars should act the same; it¹s just a matter of aero ‹ and if it cuts through the air better that¹s a plus. We¹ll have time to test it and fine tune it so we can continue to be competitive on the track.²

Alderman knows from experience the importance of a smooth transition.

³I¹ll use last year as an example for changing cars,² said the 2002 Gatornationals Pro Stock winner. ³I went half way through the season and was fourth in points. But we changed cars a couple of times and didn¹t even qualify the last half of the season. I don¹t know if it was the cars. The cars are one thing we changed and I definitely was not comfortable with it.

³Larry (Morgan) and Gene (Wilson) are over there working on the Stratus,² Alderman continued. ³And if that information is applied to ours over here, they may be better off the last half of the year. It will benefit them because they will have gone through the learning curve and will know what the car needs. We¹re still working with the Neon -- which we know and understand. We¹ll have to go through a little learning curve once we switch to the Stratus because racers are racers -- they don¹t give each other everything. It¹s a learning curve they are going to have to go through right now and that we¹ll go through soon ourselves. We will have the opportunity to test back to back and we hope that by the time we bring them out we¹ll still be competitive.²

Both Alderman and Johnson will be attempting to qualify for the Feb. 20-23, Checker Schuck¹s & Kragen NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway.

ESPN2 will have qualifying coverage from 11:30 p.m., to 1:30 a.m., on Feb. 22; while ESPN2 will present elimination coverage from 9-11 p.m., on Feb. 23. All times Eastern.

The Stratus Challenge

When Mopar¹s Larry Morgan and teammate Gene Wilson strapped into their shiny new Dodge Stratus R/T Pro Stock cars to qualify of the most recent K&N Filters NHRA Winter nationals at Pomona Raceway it was a time of firsts.

It was the first NHRA national event of 2003; the first race for the Stratus and the first-ever passes in the new car for both Morgan and Wilson.

³We were pretty happy just to be in competition in Pomona,² Morgan said.³ The guys worked an awful lot of long hours to get us here. Everyone involved, from our shop to the guys at Jerry Haas. They did a tremendous job getting us ready.²

Morgan will run the 2003 season with a two-car, Mopar factory operation. The Newark, Ohio, resident is joined by 30-year-old category sophomore driver Wilson, who evaluated his maiden voyage with the new Stratus.

³The car was constructed at Jerry Haas¹s shop and I¹ve run various versions of his cars for many years and just feel comfortable in it,² Wilson said. ³The Mopar engineering team has done a great job with the car¹s aero, too. The Stratus is going to be awesome. It¹s the best looking car on the track and I¹m pretty excited because the more track time we get with it, the better it¹s going to get. It¹s going to take time to understand what the car likes and wants. Each track has its own characteristics and we¹re starting at ground zero to baseline what the car is looking for it to be fast and quick.²

Last season, this formidable duo had some measures of on-track success. The 48-year-old Morgan grabbed his first NHRA Pro Stock national event victory since 1994, after beating 2002 champion Jeg Coughlin, Jr., and category standout Greg Anderson on consecutive holeshots at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. Wilson, the 2002 NHRA Rookie of the Year, closed out the season on a hot streak, logging three final-round appearances in the last half of the season and grabbing his first-career No. 1 qualifier at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.

³Our goal is to win races this season,² Wilson said. ³I¹m real confident that will happen - and sooner than later.²