Warren Johnson Has A Roller Coaster Ride in Dallas
For only the third time in his 441-race career, Warren Johnson started from the sixteenth position at an NHRA national event, capturing the final spot on Sunday's final eliminations ladder at the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals. His reward for this performance would be facing No. 1 qualifier Jeg Coughlin, who had reset the Texas Motorplex track record, during qualifying in the first round.
Undeterred, Johnson focused on preparing his GM Performance Parts Grand Am for eliminations, and delivered a solid 6.836-second, 203.12 mph pass, which proved to be enough to score the upset, as Coughlin slowed to 7.292-second elapsed time.
Johnson then squared off against veteran Bruce Allen in the second round. On the strength of a .035 reaction, Johnson gained a slight advantage at the starting line, and looked to advance to the semifinals. Unfortunately, his race car fought for traction on the hot and slippery racetrack, which slowed him to a 6.956-second elapsed time and allowed his opponent to overcome his lead and drive on for the win.
"It may have been a roller coaster ride today, but at least we were on the coaster while others were simply watching. We were fortunate to make a good run and get the win in the first round, after which we looked at the run and adjusted for the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, we did not compensate enough for the change in the atmospheric conditions. There were four changes you could make in one of these cars to give it more bite, and we made three. Obviously, we needed to make the fourth.
"I scrapped a lot of the high-tech data we had been using this weekend and went back to doing things the way I did three years ago. I think we're going in the right direction with this new motor combination in our GM Performance Parts Grand Am - all we need is a little more time."
Courtesy Jon G. Knapp
TMG Sports Marketing
Undeterred, Johnson focused on preparing his GM Performance Parts Grand Am for eliminations, and delivered a solid 6.836-second, 203.12 mph pass, which proved to be enough to score the upset, as Coughlin slowed to 7.292-second elapsed time.
Johnson then squared off against veteran Bruce Allen in the second round. On the strength of a .035 reaction, Johnson gained a slight advantage at the starting line, and looked to advance to the semifinals. Unfortunately, his race car fought for traction on the hot and slippery racetrack, which slowed him to a 6.956-second elapsed time and allowed his opponent to overcome his lead and drive on for the win.
"It may have been a roller coaster ride today, but at least we were on the coaster while others were simply watching. We were fortunate to make a good run and get the win in the first round, after which we looked at the run and adjusted for the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, we did not compensate enough for the change in the atmospheric conditions. There were four changes you could make in one of these cars to give it more bite, and we made three. Obviously, we needed to make the fourth.
"I scrapped a lot of the high-tech data we had been using this weekend and went back to doing things the way I did three years ago. I think we're going in the right direction with this new motor combination in our GM Performance Parts Grand Am - all we need is a little more time."
Courtesy Jon G. Knapp
TMG Sports Marketing
posted by David @ 1:58 AM
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