NHRA Kurt Johnson Update: KJ Battles to 14th Starting Spot in Atlanta

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Event:  25th Annual Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals 

Day/Date: Saturday, May 14, 2005

Location:  Atlanta Dragway, Commerce, GA

 

Entering his second national event with his new ACDelco Chevrolet
Cobalt, Kurt Johnson knew he would need to accelerate his learning curve
in order to successfully qualify for Sunday's final eliminations of the
Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals in Commerce, GA.    Further
complicating his assignment was the changing weather, which went from
very hot and humid on Friday to drier and cooler conditions on Saturday,
when the final session was delayed by over an hour by a mid-afternoon
rain shower.

 

Through it all, Johnson's crew kept working to find the right tune-up,
culminating with a 6.789-second, 204.23 mph pass on Friday night, which
would earn them the 14th starting position for Sunday's final
eliminations.  

 

"We had a heck of a day today, but we still learned something about what
this car needs to run," said Johnson. "We knew this particular ACDelco
Cobalt has a lot of bite in it, which is what helped it get down the
questionable racing surface in Bristol two weeks ago, and we confirmed
it this morning when it shook the tires.  Fortunately, we were able to
make a good run on Friday night to guarantee our spot in the show.  Now,
it's just a matter of detuning it for eliminations."

 

However, this did not prove to be Johnson's most memorable run in
qualifying.  Immediately after launching on his final attempt on
Saturday afternoon, Johnson's car shot directly towards the center line,
forcing him to veer to the left to avoid hitting the starting line
"Christmas Tree".  An inspection of the car afterwards revealed that a
problem in the fuel system had produced a leak, which left a small
amount directly in front of the right rear tire, causing it to lose
traction.

 

"We made a few adjustments and were all set up to make a good run this
afternoon," said  Johnson.  "Unfortunately, we had a glitch in the fuel
system where the fitting was tight, but the tubing wasn't seated, which
caused it to leak.  It was a pretty hairy ride for a minute, because I
didn't know what was happening, except the tree was coming up fast and I
needed to get out of there."

 

Despite the scare, Johnson remained optimistic about his chances for
race day.

 

"I think we can do some damage tomorrow if we can get this ACDelco
Cobalt to go down the race track, making clean runs from point A to
point B," opined Johnson.  "We're confident of being able to run with
our competitors, and felt we could have been the No. 1 qualifier instead
of Dad (six-time Pro Stock champion Warren Johnson, who captured his 133
No. 1 qualifying position.)  We just had a bad day.  Fortunately, we'll
take all that information and put it together for four runs tomorrow."