Kurt Johnson Scores a Decisive Win in Bristol, Pads POWERade Points Lead

Bristol, Tenn., April 27, 2003 -  Kurt Johnson extended his recent string of 
strong performances by winning today's Mac Tools NHRA Thunder Valley 
Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee.   Facing Mike Edwards in the final, Johnson 
used the second quickest pass of eliminations at 6.899 seconds to overcome 
his opponent's slight starting line advantage and edge him at the finish line 
by 48 thousandths of a second.  This was Johnson's third win of the 2003 
season, 25th of his career, and helped the ACDelco Cavalier pilot extend his 
lead in the NHRA POWERade Championship standings to 95 points over second 
place Greg Anderson.

"I knew Mike (Edwards) was going to be tough, and I would need my best light 
of the day to win," explained Johnson.  "Fortunately, I got it, and I was 
able to get him at the stripe.  The competition in Pro Stock is so close 
right now, you go up there, give it your best shot, and hope the win light 
comes on.  Today the ACDelco Cavalier was able to do just that."

After dealing with constantly changing weather conditions throughout 
qualifying, both the racers and the standing-room only crowd were relieved to 
see sunny skies and warm temperatures at Bristol Dragway on Sunday.  However, 
the totally new atmospheric conditions posed a serious challenge for the 
teams, who scrambled to find the proper tune-up.  

Much like they had in Houston two weeks ago, the ACDelco crew made all the 
right calls, posting the quickest elapsed times in all four rounds.  This 
allowed K.J. to gain victories over Barry Grant and Bruce Allen, and set the 
stage for an important semi-final meeting with his father, Warren Johnson, 
who had qualified No. 1 and closely matched his son's performance on race 
day.

Unfortunately, the race was decided before it ever began, as W.J. left the 
starting line seven thousandths of a second early, handing the automatic win 
to his son, who punctuated the victory by recording an elapsed time of 6.929 
seconds with a top speed of 200.56 mph,  earning the lane choice for his 
final round encounter against Mike Edwards. 

"It's always tough to race my father," stated Johnson, "because it hurts 
whether you win or lose.  It's something we think about every Sunday.  I hate 
to beat him, because he taught me everything I know, but we have a 
responsibility to our sponsors. 

"I'm out there for ACDelco and Chevrolet, and he's out there for GM 
Performance Parts and Pontiac.  We both have been driving our tails off, and 
we both really want to win.  On the bright side, we knew one of our Warren 
Johnson Enterprises cars would be in the final.  It was a fun race, because 
we both gave it our best shot, and we were fortunate to come out on top."

However, all was not calm in the ACDelco pit area.  Despite reaching their 
fourth consecutive championship round, and 44th of Johnson's career, the team 
was concerned about an apparent performance drop-off.   A quick check of 
their race car uncovered a total loss of vacuum, which would rob their engine 
of valuable horsepower.   With less than an hour before the final, the crew 
jumped into action, finding the source of the leak and sealing it with 
instant epoxy, reaching the starting line with moments to spare.  With the 
repair completed, Johnson was able to win consecutive national events for the 
third time in his career.

"After we slowed down to that 6.92 against Dad, we knew there was a problem 
with the car.   We knew had no vacuum, which we traced to a gasket.  Luckily, 
we were able to seal it up, and it picked up three hundredths in the final, 
which made the difference between winning and losing.  

"We may have stumbled a little bit in qualifying, but that came down to a one 
shot deal on Saturday.  Fortunately, today we made all the right calls.  This 
ACDelco Cavalier continues to be flawless, and it's all because of the people 
working on it.  This crew is working so well together that we can anticipate 
our every move.  

"In addition, we've exchanged a lot of information between our car and the GM 
Performance Parts car, and they're both running great right now.  It all 
comes down to paying attention to every detail.  The bottom line is that we 
were able to put the ACDelco Chevrolet in the winner's circle, and anytime we 
can do that, it's a great day."

2003 NHRA POWERade Points Standings

1.  Kurt Johnson           551
2.  Greg Anderson          456
3.  Warren Johnson        438
4.  Jeg Coughlin Jr.         313
5.  Bruce Allen               311