NHRA Saturday: A Consistent WJ Will Start Fourth in Sonoma

Event: 16th annual NHRA Nationals
Location:  Infineon Raceway
       Sonoma, CA
Day/Date: Saturday August 8, 2003 

Warren Johnson wrapped up a workmanlike qualifying effort on Saturday at Infineon Raceway.  In each of his four attempts, Johnson's GM Performance Parts Grand Am posted one of the quickest times in the Pro Stock category, with both his elapsed time and top speed among the top five of the 26 cars entered.  Johnson's best effort came on Saturday morning, when he covered the quarter-mile in 6.785 seconds with a top speed of 204.23 mph, placing him fourth for Sunday's final eliminations.  

As Johnson explained, this consistency is the result of the Performance Parts team growing more familiar with their race car, a radical new design that made its debut only seven races ago.

"We're finally homing on what this GM Performance Parts Grand Am needs to handle these particular track conditions.  The starting line here in Sonoma appeared to be better than it actually was, so we made a major swing in the suspension department for our final run, and it went right down the race track. Therefore, it appears we had been just on the other side of being too aggressive.  

"Over the last few weeks, this car has handled a variety of racetracks quite nicely, so we're getting into somewhat of a comfort zone.  In fact, we will probably be ordering another car of this design for Kurt in the near future."

In an ironic twist, Johnson's first-round opponent will be his son Kurt, who powered his way into the field on his last attempt.

"Certainly it's not the match-up of our choice, but it's better than his being outside the field.  We will just have to take it the way it is and make the best of it.  Hopefully, whichever of our two cars wins in the first round will go on to win the race."