NHRA Warren Johnson Race Wrap Up: WJ Reaches the Topeka Quarterfinals

 

Event:  18th Annual O'Reilly NHRA Summernationals

Day/Date: Sunday, May 28, 2006

Location:  Heartland Park Topeka, Topeka, KS

 

Warren Johnson and the GM Performance Parts GTO Racing team had a solid
outing during Sunday's final eliminations of the O'Reilly NHRA
Summernationals in Topeka, KS.  After qualifying twelfth, Johnson faced
long-time rival and the most recent Pro Stock winner on the POWERade
tour, Jim Yates in the first round.  Despite racing without lane choice,
Johnson opened with a solid .048 reaction time to gain the advantage by
one hundredth of a second, and then posted his quickest pass of the
weekend at 6.842 seconds with a top speed of 201.55 mph to upset the
higher-qualified Yates.

 

Johnson's assignment did not get any easier in the second round, as he
would face rival and former employee Greg Anderson.  Once again, The
Professor would race without the luxury of lane choice, making a
representative 6.860-second, 201.25 mph run.  However, it was not enough
to hold off Anderson, who posted the quickest pass of eliminations at
6.826 seconds to put a premature to Johnson's day.  

 

Even so, Johnson was pleased with his team's performance on Sunday,
feeling that they had found the issue that had plagued their race car
over the last few races.

 

"We looked at everything we had done over the last seven or eight races,
and I went over our notes from last year for both this car and the
previous one, and I think we found a common denominator that should get
us back on course.  We applied about seventy per cent of it for the
first round, simply because we didn't have all the necessary parts on
the trailer, and our GM Performance Parts GTO responded favorably.

 

 "We made an adjustment for the track temperature in the second round
and were just a little too aggressive.  As a result, it pulled the motor
down at the hit of the throttle, which killed both the reaction time and
sixty-foot time.  Looking at the incrementals after that, we were just
where we needed to be.  I believe it's just a matter of straightening
out of few little details here and there.  The important part is that we
finally have this headed in the right direction to where we can race
consistently.  We'll test between now and Chicago to make sure
everything is in order, but we should be in good shape from here on
out."