NHRA Kurt Johnson Qualifying Wrap Up: KJ Improves, Will Start Fourth in Memphis

Contact:  Jon Knapp   

TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.

 Ph: (704) 662-3121

jgknapp@tmgsports.net

 

 KJ Improves, Will Start Fourth in Memphis

 

Event:  19th Annual O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals

Day/Date: Saturday, August 19, 2006

Location:  Memphis Motorsports Park, Millington, TN

 

Qualifying for the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals was completed on
Saturday under conditions that severely challenged teams in the NHRA's
Pro Stock category.  The combination of 100 degree temperatures and
drenching humidity combined to strangle the naturally-aspirated "factory
hot rods", magnifying the importance of even the slightest error in
judgment.  

 

Starting the day confident that his 6.784-second, 203.03 mph pass from
Friday evening would keep him in the sixteen-car field, Kurt Johnson
used his first attempt on Saturday to gain valuable tuning information
on his still-new ACDelco Cobalt.  

 

After duplicating his elapsed time from the previous day on that initial
run and bettering his top speed to 203.68 mph, which was third fastest
among the 23 cars making an attempt, the second generation racer changed
his approach for his last attempt trying to improve his starting
position.

 

Running in the right hand lane, Johnson's car made its best pass of the
weekend, a 6.765-second, 204.26 mph blast to capture the fourth starting
position for Sunday's final eliminations in Millington, TN.

 

 "We used our first run as a learning experience, trying a few different
things to see how this new car would act.  We made a decent 6.784-second
pass, but when we saw V. Gaines run 6.76, we worried that we might have
missed a potential opportunity.  So, for the last session, we put it
back to the way we had it in Q1 last night and made a few subtle
changes.

 

"I thought it ran pretty well, and even though we might have lost a
little in the back half with the carburetion adjustments, it really
picked it up in the early part of the run, which is a trade-off we're
willing to make.  

 

"This ACDelco Cobalt is really coming around, looking pretty impressive.
On each run, it's picked up a couple hundredths on the correction, so
now we're looking for a few thousandths.  We're looking to have a good
day tomorrow with the car and on the tree, and if we do that, it'll be a
hit."

# # #