NHRA Kurt Johnson Update: KJ Wins Record Fourth King Demon Crown in Joliet

Contact:  Jon Knapp   

TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.

 Ph: (704) 662-3121

jgknapp@tmgsports.net

 

Kurt Johnson Wins Record Fourth King Demon Crown in Joliet

 

Event:  10th Annual Torco Racing Fuel Nationals

Day/Date: Saturday, June 9, 2007

Location:  Route 66 Raceway, Joliet, IL

 

ACDelco Cobalt racer Kurt Johnson used a combination of solid driving
and a strong race car on Saturday to capture the NHRA's annual Pro Stock
all-star race, the King Demon Crown, which was held at Route 66 Raceway
in Joliet, IL.  Starting from the fifth position, Johnson defeated David
Connolly and Greg Anderson in the preliminary rounds before squaring off
against Greg Stanfield in the final.

 

Running in the left hand lane, Johnson gained the advantage at the
starting line by almost two hundredths of a second with a .033 reaction
time and never looked back, powering through the quarter-mile in 6.692
seconds at 207.15 mph to outdistance his opponent, who posted a
6.729-second elapsed time in the losing effort.

 

"Today was a great day for the ACDelco Cobalt crew," said Johnson.
"When you have to race so many good cars and drivers, you never know how
these things are going to work out - you just let the clutch out and
hope everything comes together, looking for the win light at the other
end.

 

"All year long, you try to gather as many points for the King Demon,
hoping to be in the top eight when you get here to Chicago.  Then once
you're in, you try to come out to the track and have fun, but when I
came out of the shower this morning, I realized there was fifty grand on
the line today.  There were eight great drivers and eight great cars out
there today, any one of which could have won.  Fortunately, we were able
to get the job done."

 

This was Johnson's fourth win in this race, which pairs the eight best
average qualifiers over the last year in a three-round
single-elimination tournament. This broke a four-way tie with his
father, Warren Johnson, Bob Glidden and Larry Morgan, who had each
posted three wins in the event's 23-year history.  In addition to the
unique winner's trophy featuring a carburetor on a pedestal, today's
performance earned Johnson $50,000, with the possibility of a $25,000
bonus should he also win tomorrow's race.

 

 "What makes today's performance especially rewarding is that we really
didn't have the package yesterday," said Johnson. "The car wasn't up to
speed, and I wasn't cutting good lights. I knew everything would have to
come to a point if we were to win today.    The car had to respond, I
had to be with it, and the crew had to do their job, which is exactly
what we did.

 

"It was ugly in the first round against Connolly - the car was out of
control.  Luckily, I was able to get the jump at the start (with a
stellar .007 reaction time), and he also made a bad run.  We made some
huge adjustments for the second round against Greg (Anderson), and were
able to come back with a great run.  We didn't event touch it for the
final against (Greg) Stanfield, and finally put it all together.
Hopefully, we put on a good show for the fans, because that's what
really matters.  Our ACDelco Cobalt crew had a lot of fun today, and I
hope everyone else did too."  

 

Despite their success, however the Johnson-led crew knew they would have
to put any celebrations on hold, as they will start sixth in tomorrow's
final eliminations based on their 6.646-second, 207.75 mph pass from
Friday evening.    With the special event behind them, their focus will
once again return to their pursuit of this year's POWERade Pro Stock
championship.

 

"We'll have time to celebrate this win on Monday or Tuesday, because now
we have to get our ACDelco Cobalt ready for tomorrow," said Johnson.
"There are championship points on the line tomorrow, and we want to get
as many as we can, making sure we are safely in the Countdown when we
get to Indianapolis.  We'll enjoy today's win, but we have a big race to
run tomorrow."

 

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