NHRA Kurt Johnson Pomona Wrap Up: KJ is Too Good in the Pomona Semifinals

 

Event:  41st Annual Auto Club of Southern California Nationals

Day/Date: Sunday, November 6, 2005

Location:  Pomona Raceway, Pomona, CA

 

After qualifying third for the Auto Club of Southern California Finals,
Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Cobalt Racing team looked to end the 2005
NHRA season with back-to-back national event wins.  Things went
according to plan in the early rounds, as Johnson posted elimination
round victories over veterans Larry Morgan and Rickie Smith, advancing
to the semi-finals for the 14th time this season.

 

The final obstacle between Johnson and his eighth final round appearance
of 2005 was another seasoned pro, Tom Martino, who had already scored
impressive holeshot wins over Erica Enders and Richie Stevens.  With the
two cars evenly matched and facing an opponent who had posted
single-digit reaction times in the first two rounds, Johnson knew he
would need to be first off the starting line in order to reach the
championship round.

 

Unfortunately, Johnson left eleven thousandths of a second too early,
with the resultant red-light handing the automatic win to his rival,
putting a premature end to his day.  Despite the initial disappointment,
the second-generation driver took some solace in that he had completed
another successful season, with his four wins and 44 elimination round
wins helping him score the fourth championship runner-up finish of his
career.

 

"I wasn't going to be late," joked Johnson afterward.  "Obviously, we
saw that he (Martino) had gone .00's in the first two rounds, but we
also knew we were just as capable of that type of reaction time, having
been in the teens and twenties in qualifying and the first round.
Therefore, we did our normal routine for the semi-finals.

 

"However, everything we did to our ACDelco Cobalt worked to help my
reaction time.  I changed glasses, we revved the motor up, put in a new
transmission and put some clutch in it.  All of this compounded the fact
that we were going to have a better reaction time.  We just ended up
eleven thousandths too good.

 

"I hate to trade losses for wins, but I would gladly take the loss here
for that win we had in Vegas two weeks ago.  We had hoped to leave here
with five wins for the year, but that didn't really work out.  However,
we can't be disappointed with the four we did win, as well as finishing
second in the POWERade points.  The way we see it, we were better than
everyone else except for one, which is not bad.  But this year is now
behind us.  We're ready to go back to the shop get working on improving
that finish by one spot in 2006."