NHRA Saturday: Kurt Johnson Starts 10th in Seattle

										    															             jgknapp@tmgsports.net
Final Qualifying Results

Kurt Johnson Starts 10th in Seattle

Event: 17th Annual Carquest Auto Parts Nationals
Location:  Pacific Raceways
       Kent, Washington
Day/Date: Saturday July 24, 2004

Racers encountered two things during qualifying at the Carquest Auto Parts Nationals that they had never previously encountered at Pacific Raceways.  The first was the completely resurfaced race track, while the other was the unseasonably warm temperatures, which came close to topping 100 degrees on both Friday and Saturday.  Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Racing team responded to the challenge by making four solid runs, with their best effort of 6.801 seconds, 202.94 mph slotting their Cavalier in the tenth position for Sunday's final eliminations. 

"Today was an exercise in trying to make our ACDelco Cavalier a little faster.  After experimenting a little on Friday, we went back to basics for today.  This morning's run was decent, but it seemed we were on the edge, so we tried a few things for this afternoon's run to see where our limits were on this race track when it was 130 degrees.  

"I guess you can say we not only found our limits, we went way over them.  The track was hot and greasy, and this car never shakes as bad as it did on that pass.  It may not seem like it, but that run taught us quite a bit about our car.  We'll back it down for tomorrow, getting closer to the tune-up we ran that 6.80 with this morning, and go forward from there.

"If the forecast holds and it is cooler, it should help.  Conditions will then be closer to what we ran this morning when the track temperature was 115 degrees.  I think everyone would look forward to that.  For us, it's all about going rounds, whatever the conditions.  As long as we win, we're happy."