NHRA Thursday: WJ Opens in the Third Position in Pomona

Thursday Qualifying Results

Date: February 19, 2004
Event: 43rd Annual NHRA Winternationals
Location: Pomona Raceway, Pomona, CA

Warren Johnson opened his defense of his 2003 Winternationals win in fine fashion on Thursday during the first day of qualifying in Pomona, CA.  On his first qualifying attempt of the 2004 POWERade season, WJ's GM Performance Parts Grand Am powered down the quarter-mile in 6.781 seconds with a top speed of 204.23 mph, which placed "The Professor" in the third position with three sessions remaining.  

"Although it was a little more humid than we like to see with these gasoline burners, we felt the temperature might be as good as it's going to get, so we made the best of what we had to work with.

"We also had the added twist of this being the first time the Pro Stock contingent has had a chance to qualify with the new bead lock wheels on a racing surface prepared by the NHRA. As a result, I'm sure a lot of us were just a little overly aggressive on our set-ups thinking the track was better that it actually was.  

"In our case, we were a little light on the clutch, but I don't think that will get bumped out, so we just see it as a starting point from which we can fine tune our GM Performance Parts Grand Am."