NHRA Friday: Sitting Sixth on Friday, KJ Sets Sights on Improving in Dallas

Event: 18th annual O'Reilly Fall Nationals 
Location:  Texas Motorplex
       Ennis, TX
Day/Date: Friday October 10, 2003

On the outside, Kurt Johnson's two runs during the first day of qualifying for the O'Reilly Fall Nationals seemed to be exactly what the team was looking for.  After opening with the second quickest pass of the round at 6.884 seconds, Johnson's ACDelco Pro Stock Cavalier came back in the evening session to lower his time of record to 6.868 seconds with a top speed of 202.33 mph, good enough for the sixth position midway through qualifying.  

However, the team was not fully satisfied with their performance, as a recurring clutch problem the team has battled over the last few weeks seemed to resurface.  Entering Saturday's final two attempts, Johnson and the ACDelco formulated a plan to overcome the potential set back. 

"The clutch was dead locked during the first run, and when we came back tonight the track temperature had gone down, and we ended up slipping the heck out of it.  I felt we could have easily gone a mid 6.84, but we didn't make a good run, hooking left and getting out of the groove.  Even so, we're sixth.

"For some reason, our ACDelco Cavalier suddenly needs a lot more clutch.  I pulled up some runs from Brainerd, and we were 80 pounds lighter on base and 5 grams lighter on counter weight, and it was dead locked.  We put a new clutch unit and changed the rear end for this race.  The last piece, which we'll replace in the morning, is the clutch switch, which holds the motor.  It's a problem we're fighting right now, and we're going to fix it.  All I know is that tomorrow I'm putting a lot more clutch in."