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NHRA: Fresh Horses Spur Effort by Castrol Super Clean Trucks

28 April 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

DINWIDDIE, Va.- Fresh horses and familiarity are at the root of the optimism shared this week (April 28-30) by rookie Rob Slavinski and teammate Steve Johns as they pursue the Pro Stock Truck championship in the sixth annual Moto1.net Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.

Drivers of the matching purple-hued Castrol Super Clean Chevy S-10 trucks fielded by Kessinger Motorsports, Slavinski and Johns will benefit from engines refurbished the past week at the Malvern, Pa., shops of Jenkins Competition, one of the nation's foremost horsepower factories.

Furthermore, they'll have access to the performance formulas which last year carried Brad Jeter to a sweep of Pro Stock Truck honors at VMP No. 1 qualifier, race winner, quick time and top speed of the event.

That knowledge is the property of Crew Chief Gerald Guadagnolo, who left Jeter at season's end last year to lend his expertise to Slavinski, the Wallingford, Conn., veteran who this year is moving up from the sportsman division, in which he won seven races in three different disciplines, to his first professional ride.

"With fresh engines, Gerald's history at Richmond and the things we've learned with the clutch the past several weeks, I like our chances," Slavinski said.

Although he has qualified for each of the four truck races contested this season, a considerable achievement for a rookie driver, the 39-year-old Slavinski still is looking for his first round win as a pro driver.

By contrast, Johns is trying to regain the form which carried him to victory in the final race of the 1999 season, making him the third different driver to win an NHRA event in a Kessinger Motorsports Chevy.

The 37-year-old resident of Mountville, Pa., Crew Chief on the Chevy S-10 that won the inaugural Pro Stock Truck Championship in 1998, has endured an up-and-down season thus far. He went from the ecstasy of qualifying No. 1 at the season opener to the agony of failing to make the 16-truck lineup at the second event.

Nevertheless, the veteran still is fourth in season points, one win away from establishing himself as a legitimate challenger to champion Bob Panella's title.

A past winner in NHRA sportsman racing (Competition Eliminator), Johns is trying to become the first in drag racing history to win championships in two different categories (Comp and Pro Stock Truck) as BOTH driver and Crew Chief. He was Crew Chief on the car that Bob Kaiser drove to the Comp Eliminator World Championship in 1989. Three years later (1992), he drove the car that won the same title.

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