NHRA Warren Johnson Race Wrap Up: WJ is Just Too Fast in Joliet Semifinals

 

Event:  Fifth Annual Ameriquest Mortgage NHRA Nationals 

Day/Date: Sunday, October 2, 2005

Location:  Route 66 Raceway, Joliet, IL

 

After qualifying eighth for Sunday's final eliminations of the
Ameriquest Mortgage NHRA Nationals, Warren Johnson and the GM
Performance Parts GTO Racing team knew they would need to pick up their
game in order to challenge for the win.  As expected, the crew
responded, posting one of the quickest times in the first round at 6.766
seconds to defeat long-time rival Jim Yates.

 

This set the stage for a second-round encounter with current Pro Stock
points leader Greg Anderson, who was the No. 1 qualifier.  Even without
the benefit of lane choice, Johnson took the measure of his former team
member, using a stellar .028 reaction time to gain the advantage by over
two hundredths of a second at the starting line and then powering away,
with The Professor's 6.749-second, 204.48 mph pass outdistancing
Anderson's 6.763 second, 203.28 mph effort.  

 

The final obstacle between Johnson and his 149th final round was
newcomer Erica Enders.  Despite WJ making his best run of the day,
rocketing through the quarter-mile in 6.748-seconds with a top speed of
205.07 mph, it went for naught, as he left the starting line six
thousandths of a second early, handing the automatic win to his young
opponent.

 

Despite the initial disappointment, Johnson was able to find several
positives from his weekend at Route 66 Raceway.

 

 "We've been working on improving our reaction times, and tried
something during the first two rounds in qualifying. We had .40 lights
there, so we knew we were moving in the right direction.  We then
changed it a little bit more for today, and it seemed like it helped
even further.  Unfortunately, we must have gone just a bit too far in
the semis.

 

"Our weekend may have ended too early, but we're encouraged by today's
performance.  We had been working on finding what this GM Performance
Parts GTO needed to run, and feel we we are heading in the right
direction, as evidenced by our being one of the quicker cars in
eliminations.  Clearly we've put a gap between ourselves and some other
cars - now it's a matter of trying to squeak another hundredth or two
out of it.

 

"I believe we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We'll stay
here tomorrow and test, and hopefully get headed in the right direction,
which should put us in good shape for the rest of the season."