NHRA Kurt Johnson Race Wrap Up: A Game KJ Advances to Reading Quarterfinals

Contact:

     Jon G. Knapp

     TMG Sports Marketing

     (704) 662-3121

     jgknapp@tmgsports.net

 

A Game KJ Advances to Reading Quarterfinals

 

Event:  22nd Annual Toyo Tires Nationals

Day/Date: Sunday, October 1, 2006

Location:  Maple Grove Raceway, Reading, PA

 

After qualifying tenth, Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Cobalt Racing team
faced a tall order entering Sunday's final eliminations of the Toyo
Tires Nationals in Reading, PA.   After going off the top end of the
track during his second qualifying attempt on Friday, the team worked
furiously to repair their car.  Although they were able to patch it back
together well enough to post a competitive 6.652-second, 207.37 mph pass
on Saturday, they knew they would need a near-perfect effort on race day
in order to score their fourth win of the season.

 

Things went according to plan in the first round, as KJ used the second
quickest reaction time of the round at .023, giving him the edge by two
hundredths of a second at the start, and combined it with a solid
6.667-second, 206.76 mph pass to upset No. 7 qualifier Richie Stevens,
who slowed to a 12.762-second time in the losing effort.

 

However, his assignment did not get any easier in the quarterfinals, as
he would take on rival Greg Anderson, who had reset the national elapsed
time record in the first round.  Faced with a potential performance
disadvantage and racing in a less-than-perfect race car without the
benefit of lane choice, Johnson knew he would need every advantage he
could get in order to advance to the semifinals.  Unfortunately, he
pushed the starting line "Christmas Tree" a little too hard, with the
resultant red light awarding the automatic win to his opponent.

 

Despite the initial disappointment, Johnson quickly acknowledged that,
in light of Friday's events, the results could have been worse, and
pointed to the tremendous effort by his crew under the difficult
circumstances.

 

"I went in, staged and went down on the stop, but we had so much clutch
in it that it pushed me back a bit, making it hard to release it (the
clutch pedal) the right way.  The bottom line is that I ended up turning
on the red light.  I had been hoping to get a perfect start and maybe
throw him off his game a bit, but it didn't happen.  

 

"Unfortunately, our ACDelco Cobalt also didn't run right today.
Although we didn't think that there was a lot of junk in the engine
after our excursion on Friday, we didn't want to run the chance of
damaging it, so we parked it and put our second bullet in, which
apparently hurt us.  I guess it just wasn't our weekend.

 

"Although things could have been better, they also could have been a lot
worse.  This ACDelco crew did a great job under some very trying
conditions, bouncing back to put a competitive car together.  We'll take
today's results and move on, rebuild and get ready for Richmond next
week."

 

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