NHRA Warren Johnson Pre Race: A Short Week Creates Long Hours
for WJ & Crew before Memphis
Sugar Hill, Ga., August 17, 2005 - For the eighth time this season, the
NHRA's POWERade Drag Racing Series will be competing on consecutive
weekends, with the first round of qualifying for the O'Reilly Midsouth
Nationals in Memphis, TN, coming just five days after the conclusion of
last weekend's event in Brainerd, MN. Under the best of circumstances,
this abbreviated schedule would give teams just enough time to perform
their between-race maintenance and make the 980-mile drive from
Minnesota to the Volunteer state.
However, for Warren Johnson and the GM Performance Parts Racing team,
the timetable will be even more hectic, as they will spend two days
testing in St. Louis prior to heading to the Tennessee track. Having
made only ten runs with their new GTO (including the seven made during
last week's race), they will look to become more familiar with their new
race car's performance characteristics, information that could be very
useful as they look to score their fourth win of the season.
"Going into Brainerd, we really didn't have time to do anything more to
our GM Performance Parts GTO than make sure it went from Point A to
Point B," said Johnson. "That hurt us a little when it got warmer on
Sunday, because we had data from qualifying on a cool track that we had
to try and adapt for the warmer conditions, without any real knowledge
on how it would respond to certain changes. Even so, I think we
represented ourselves well.
"Having that race under our belt, we can now start making changes in the
chassis, gearing, clutch and suspension, getting more aggressive and
seeing how we can improve it even further. Ideally, we'll try to make
eight or nine runs on Wednesday and Thursday in St. Louis, trying
components and gathering information. By spending two days testing, we
hope to accumulate a backlog of data that will allow us to go to Memphis
and be able to do a relatively good job of adjusting to the racetrack."
This weekend, the Johnson crew's assignment will be made even tougher by
the event being held in the late afternoon or evening, which will cause
the racing surface at Memphis Motorsports Park to change throughout
qualifying and eliminations. Making the proper adjustments to adapt to
the track will be the key to qualifying well and going rounds. Locked
in a tight championship battle, the team knows they have little room for
error, and are prepared to do whatever is necessary to tame the
Tennessee quarter-mile.
"To their credit, the track management in Memphis is constantly working
to keep their racetrack in shape," stated Johnson. "However, due to the
apparently unstable nature of the ground it was built on, it's
constantly moving, and as a result, it's never been very smooth. For
example, four years ago, we had possibly the best atmospheric conditions
ever for Pro Stock, and still couldn't run that fast.
"However, we're all dealing from the same deck, and it will be up to us
to do a better job than our competition at negotiating whatever new
bumps may be out there. We just have to make extremely quick work of
getting familiar with what this GM Performance GTO needs to run. We
know it's in there - all we have to do is find it and use it."
Notes on Warren Johnson and the GM Performance Parts Pontiac Racing team
entering the
O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals:
* WJ is Solid Gold in Memphis: This will be Warren's 18th NHRA
appearance at Memphis Motorsports Park, where he has four wins in five
final round appearances, which is tied with John Force for the most
among all professional categories. In his 16 previous MMP starts, WJ
has complied a 25-11 elimination round record for a .694 win percentage.
* WJ is a Top Shelf Starter in Tennessee: WJ has been the No. 1
qualifier three times in Memphis, with only two starts outside the top
half of the field, and a 3.94 average starting position.
* No. 1 in National event wins: WJ's 95 national event victories
are the most ever in the history of the Pro Stock division and place him
second on the all-time NHRA win list. His most recent win came last
month at the Mile-High Nationals in Denver, CO.
* Career Best Elapsed Time: 6.679 seconds, Gainesville, FL,
3/20/05
* Career best top speed: 207.50 mph, Englishtown, NJ, 6/19/05
Event Schedule:
Friday, August 19 - Two qualifying sessions
at 4:30 & 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 20 - Two qualifying
sessions at 3:30 & 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 21 - Pre-race ceremonies begin
at 2:00 p.m. followed by
the first
round of eliminations at 3:00 p.m.
Television Schedule:
Qualifying: Saturday, August 20 -
8:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Eliminations: Sunday, August 21 -
10:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
NHRA2Day: Sunday, August 21 -
11:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon
(Please consult your local listings for exact times, as the schedule is
subject to change.)
