NHRA Sunday: Warren Johnson Powers to the Semi-Finals in Las Vegas

Event:  4th Annual Summitracing.com Nationals
Location:  The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
        Las Vegas, NV
Day/Date:  Sunday April 6, 2003 

Warren Johnson and the GM Performance Parts Racing team delivered another strong performance during Sunday's final eliminations of the Summitracing.com Nationals in Las Vegas, NV.  After qualifying fourth, Johnson's Grand Am quickly showed he would be a contender with his 6.879-second, 200.83 mph blast in defeating long-time rival Darrell Alderman in the first round. 

Although "The Professor of Pro Stock" was equally successful in the second round, his 6.902-second elapsed time in defeating Ron Krisher gave lane choice to Greg Anderson for their crucial semi-final match-up.  

Running in the less-preferred right lane, Johnson knew he would need any edge to defeat Anderson, who was the low qualifier.  For the second consecutive race, Johnson left the starting line ahead of the current NHRA POWERade Pro Stock points leader, gaining the advantage by two hundredths of a second.  However, Johnson soon found himself fighting to maintain control, and, as a result, allowed his opponent to gain the round win and put a premature end to Johnson's weekend.

"We should have gotten down that lane.  It wasn't really that bad.  Unfortunately, we got a little greedy, and put in too much clutch, and had too many rpm's on the starting line.  As a result, we couldn't get a hold of the race track.  If we had kept the same set-up that we used in the first round, we would have run another 6.89 and been in the final against Kurt.   However, it shook in the top of  low gear and all the way through second, and that was it.

"We're still working to improve our speed in the back half.  Our GM Performance Parts Grand Am is as fast as anyone in the first eighth of a mile, but we're losing about eight thousandths in the back half.  We're slowly getting it figured out, and once we get it back, we'll be in fine shape."