NHRA Warren Johnson Sunday Update: A Consistent WJ Advances to the Semi-Finals in Las Vegas

Contact:  Jon Knapp   

TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.

 Ph: (704) 662-3121

jgknapp@tmgsports.net

 

 

A Consistent WJ Advances to the Semi-Finals in Las Vegas

 

Event:  6th Annual SummitRacing.com Nationals

Day/Date: Sunday, April 17, 2005

Location:  The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, NV

 

Warren Johnson entered Sunday's final eliminations of the
SummitRacing.com Nationals looking to finally add a win at The Strip at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway to his successes at all the other tracks on the
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing circuit.  Starting from the No. 1 position, he
opened with a solid 6.874-second, 200.98 mph pass to eliminate veteran
Bruce Allen.  WJ duplicated this performance in the second round to
trailer V. Gaines and reach the semi-finals for the fourth time in five
races.

 

Standing between WJ and his third Las Vegas final round appearance was
rival Greg Anderson.  Once again, WJ powered down the quarter-mile,
recording a very quick 6.880-second elapsed time with his top speed of
the day at 201.37 mph.  However, it was not enough to overcome his
opponent's starting-line advantage, who used a 6.915-second pass to hold
off a hard-charging Johnson by an immeasurable one thousandth of a
second.

 

Despite the disappointment, Johnson and crew realized that there were
many positives to be drawn from their weekend in the Nevada desert.

 

"For some reason, a win in Las Vegas continues to elude us.  It's just
one of those things.   There are some tracks where we can basically do
no wrong, while here we just haven't been able to get it done.  I guess
it all balances out.  There's nothing we can do about it other than
trying our best, and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.  

 

"Quite honestly, after starting off well, in the last two races, my
reaction times seem to have fallen off a bit.  It's an area we
definitely have to address, so we'll go back and work on it. I'm sure we
can fix it and get back in the ball game as we were before.  If we can
shave off a few hundredths in reaction time, we should be in good shape.

 

"Although we didn't get the win that we were anticipating, at the same
time, our GM Performance Parts Pontiac's performance is really starting
to gel.  For example, the engine we used this weekend is the same one we
won with in Houston.  We put it in before the fourth qualifying session,
and it hasn't been out of the frame rails since.  The car is extremely
strong from the sixty-foot mark to the eighth mile, outrunning just
about every one out there.  

 

"We're pretty optimistic heading into the rest of the season.  In the
big picture, we're doing what we need to do. It's now a matter of
working on the little things.  We'll go back and analyze the complete
package and see what we can do to potentially make it even better.
Today is behind us - our focus is now on doing what we can to win
Bristol in two weeks."

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