WJ Qualifies Second on His Single Attempt in Bristol
Courtesy Jon Knapp
TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.
When Warren Johnson rolled his GM Performance Parts Pontiac to the line for his first qualifying attempt at the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals, he knew he might have only one chance to earn a spot in Sunday's final eliminations field. After all, the wet weather that had washed out Friday's action at Bristol Dragway was forecast to return and put a premature end to qualifying.
However, Johnson quickly allayed any doubts about his participation on race day as he blasted through the quarter-mile in 6.834 seconds with a top speed of 201.58 mph, which earned "The Professor" the second starting position when rain prevented any further sessions.
"The possibility of not being able to make a second run seemed pretty obvious, so we loaded it up to the point that we would at least qualify well, but not shake the tires which would cause us to miss the show. I guess you could say we were cautiously aggressive. As a result, we were way off in the first sixty feet, which was part of our game plan, but the fastest car in the back half, which shows our GM Performance Parts Pontiac has plenty of power.
"We don’t know what exactly this track is going to yield tomorrow, because the first 120 feet has been replaced, and it will certainly have seen a lot of moisture over the last two days. It will be an entirely new ball game tomorrow, but everyone will be in the same boat, having only gotten one shot at the track.
"A lot will also depend on how the racing surface is prepared. They certainly had their hands full today, so I'm sure they will do their due diligence for tomorrow. The bottom line is that we will just have to do a better job of reading the conditions and dialing in the set-up than our competitors."
TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.
When Warren Johnson rolled his GM Performance Parts Pontiac to the line for his first qualifying attempt at the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals, he knew he might have only one chance to earn a spot in Sunday's final eliminations field. After all, the wet weather that had washed out Friday's action at Bristol Dragway was forecast to return and put a premature end to qualifying.
However, Johnson quickly allayed any doubts about his participation on race day as he blasted through the quarter-mile in 6.834 seconds with a top speed of 201.58 mph, which earned "The Professor" the second starting position when rain prevented any further sessions.
"The possibility of not being able to make a second run seemed pretty obvious, so we loaded it up to the point that we would at least qualify well, but not shake the tires which would cause us to miss the show. I guess you could say we were cautiously aggressive. As a result, we were way off in the first sixty feet, which was part of our game plan, but the fastest car in the back half, which shows our GM Performance Parts Pontiac has plenty of power.
"We don’t know what exactly this track is going to yield tomorrow, because the first 120 feet has been replaced, and it will certainly have seen a lot of moisture over the last two days. It will be an entirely new ball game tomorrow, but everyone will be in the same boat, having only gotten one shot at the track.
"A lot will also depend on how the racing surface is prepared. They certainly had their hands full today, so I'm sure they will do their due diligence for tomorrow. The bottom line is that we will just have to do a better job of reading the conditions and dialing in the set-up than our competitors."
posted by David @ 2:03 AM
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