NHRA Saturday: Warren Johnson Will Roll Off 12th in Topeka

Contact: Jon G. Knapp
									TMG Sports Marketing
									Phone: (704) 662-3121
									jgknapp@tmgsports.net
										
Final Qualifying Results					

 Warren Johnson Will Roll Off 12th in Topeka

Event: 15th annual NHRA O'Reilly Summer Nationals
Location:  Heartland Park Topeka
       Topeka, KS
Day/Date: Saturday May 24, 2003 

On the strength of a 6.860-second, 201.55 mph run made on Friday evening, Warren Johnson qualified his GM Performance Parts Grand Am 12th for Sunday's final eliminations of the NHRA O'Reilly Summer Nationals in Topeka, KS.  

Persistent rain showers delayed the morning qualifying session by several hours, which allowed the temperature and humidity to rise, robbing the naturally aspirated Pro Stock class of valuable power and preventing any changes in the starting line-up.  Therefore, Saturday's twin time trials became extended test sessions for Johnson, who continues to gather information on his new race car.  Even so, Johnson made sure to finish his qualifying effort by posting the quickest elapsed time of the final session at 6.877 seconds.

"If nothing else, that last run was a step in the right direction.  We're still determining the size of the tuning window on this particular GM Performance Parts Grand Am.  As a result, throughout the weekend we've been analyzing the information from each run and making the changes that we thought the car needed.  

"We've decided to make smaller adjustments and see how the car responds rather than making big changes and possibly shooting ourselves in the foot.  It's been picking up a little on each run, so at least under these conditions, this car has a pretty big sweet spot.  As long as that happens, we'll be happy taking some baby steps."

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