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NHRA Warren Johnson Qualifying Wrap Up: WJ Overcomes New Car Blues, Will Roll Off 14th in Indy

Contact:  Jon Knapp   

TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.

 Ph: (704) 662-3121

jgknapp@tmgsports.net 

 

WJ Overcomes New Car Blues, Will Roll Off 14th in Indy

 

Event:  52nd Annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals

Day/Date: Sunday, September 3, 2006

Location:  O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, Clermont, IN

 

Warren Johnson and the GM Performance Parts GTO Racing team put forth a
tremendous effort in qualifying for the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals,
overcoming various challenges to earn the fourteenth starting position
for Monday's final eliminations.  

 

After bringing a new and relatively untested race car to O'Reilly
Raceway Park at Indianapolis, Johnson and his crew found themselves
battling various gremlins throughout the first two days of qualifying.
For example, in each of their first two attempts, their data acquisition
system, a key element in fine-tuning the car's set-up, failed to produce
any information, further complicating their assignment.

 

Even so, the team never faltered, installing a new computer and
replacing much of the wiring.  Working their way from behind, through
their final three attempts, they climbed their way through the 31-car
field, with their 6.710-second, 205.79 mph pass on Saturday morning
catapulting them into the starting line-up for drag racing's biggest
race.

 

"We've certainly had our hands full so far this weekend.  We started by
having to deal with a few electrical anomalies which resulted in our
computer not producing any data on the first two runs.  Unfortunately,
these cars have gotten so much more sophisticated than they were a few
years ago that a data acquisition system is a mandatory piece of
equipment.  You just can't tune it based on the seat of your pants
anymore.  

 

"Once we got that handled, we were finally able to start dialing this GM
Performance Parts GTO into the race track.  After looking at the limited
data we got from last night's run, we came out this morning with a
somewhat conservative set-up, keeping it soft enough that we wouldn't
shake the tires and miss the last good session.  

 

"Fortunately, we were able to not only get ourselves in the show, but we
now know the edges of this track's envelope under conditions that should
be quite similar to what we'll see tomorrow.    We should be in good
shape."

 

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