NHRA Kurt Johnson Saturday Update: KJ Qualifies Third in Brainerd

Event:  24th Annual Lucas Oil Nationals 

Day/Date: Saturday, August 13, 2005

Location:  Brainerd International Raceway, Brainerd, MN

 

Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Cobalt Racing team worked throughout
qualifying for the Lucas Oil Nationals to improve their race car's
performance, and effectively picked up the pace with every run.  On his
fourth and final attempt on Saturday afternoon at Brainerd International
Raceway, KJ recorded his best elapsed time and top speed at
6.721-seconds with a top speed of 205.13 mph to claim the third starting
position for Sunday's final eliminations.  

 

"We had freshened up our motor during the week, putting in new pistons
and rods.  Although it seemed close on the dyno, it just didn't want to
run the last 600 rpm as it had in the past, which showed up in the last
300 feet on the racetrack.  The bottom line was that it just wasn't
happy, the oxygen sensors were off, everything was just a little crazy,
and at first it had me scratching my head.

 

"We started to look at the data to see what the car was doing, and what
it was telling us it needed, and started heading in that direction.  We
got after the motor and made it better, and changed the four-link around
to what we ran low elapsed time with in Sonoma. 

 

"Fortunately, our ACDelco Cobalt responded and we went from eighth on
Friday afternoon to third today, which has us pretty pleased.  We now
have a race car that may not be the fastest tomorrow, but certainly one
we can win with."