NHRA Warren Johnson Saturday: WJ Picks Up the Pace, Starts Ninth at the Gatornationals

 

Event:  36th Annual Mac Tools Gatornationals

Day/Date: Saturday, March 19, 2005

Location:  Gainesville Raceway, Gainesville, FL

 

By the time Warren Johnson rolled to the line for his third qualifying
attempt at the Mac Tools Gatornationals, he knew he would need to post
the quickest elapsed time of his career in order to earn a spot in
Sunday's final eliminations.  Just as he has throughout his illustrious
career, Johnson responded to the challenge, powering his GM Performance
Parts Grand Am through the quarter-mile in 6.683-seconds at 206.42 mph,
bettering his personal marks in both elapsed time and top speed.  

 

Having guaranteed his position for race day, Johnson came back in the
final session with a consistent 6.693-second, 206.32 mph pass, with his
earlier run slotting him in the ninth starting position.  

 

"We haven't run this particular GM Performance Parts Grand Am under
enough varying conditions to assemble a solid database, so we came here
with a set-up that was not really suited for the conditions we've
encountered so far this weekend.  After all, we have only made a total
of eighteen runs with it.  We obviously will have to do some testing,
but so far we've been concentrating on stockpiling engine pieces for the
long haul, which has precluded any test runs.

 

"Although our runs today were effective in terms of getting us in the
field, they certainly could have been quicker.  We were hesitant to feed
it as much clutch as it required.  In fact, we thought we did, but
obviously we were making a lot more power with this DRCE III under these
conditions. 

 

"The conditions tomorrow should be fairly similar to what we had in
Phoenix, although we'll be at a considerably lower altitude, so we'll
have more power.  However, the track will also be warmer, so as long as
we compensate for the horsepower difference, we should be able to get a
little closer to where we want to run."