NHRA Saturday: WJ qualifies Seventh in Gainesville

Event: 34th Annual Mac Tools Gatornationals
Location:  Gainesville Raceway
       Gainesville, Fla.
Day/Date: Saturday March 15, 2003 

The second day of qualifying for the Mac Tools Gatornationals surprised race fans and NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series competitors alike, as forecasted heavy rains were replaced by clearing skies and seasonable temperatures.  As a result, the first session on Saturday at Gainesville Raceway proved to be the best of the weekend for the Pro Stock category, and resulted in many changes in the field for final eliminations.  

Heading into the pivotal third session, GM Performance Parts Grand Am pilot Warren Johnson knew improvement would be necessary to guarantee a spot on Sunday's final eliminations ladder.  In fact, by the time WJ came to the line, his 6.829-second effort from Friday was already outside of the top sixteen necessary to qualify.

As expected, Johnson responded to the challenge, posting a 6.802-second elapsed time with a top speed of 203.02 mph, good enough for the seventh starting position.  Johnson then completed his qualifying effort by recording the third quickest time in the final session, a solid 6.825-second pass, putting him in good stead heading into his first round match-up with Tom Martino.  

"This GM Performance Grand Am is really coming around.  We may have pinpointed where the decrease in performance is, but we can't really do anything about it until after this weekend, when we can test and confirm it.  

"We won't make any wholesale changes for tomorrow, because we're close enough to be competitive, and we certainly don't want to do something that would have an adverse effect.  The chances for that are about 50-50 and we don't want to chance it, when we are in a position to win the race."