Lane Choice Costs WJ in Vegas Quarterfinals
Contact: Jon Knapp
TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.
After qualifying seventh, Warren Johnson experienced both ends of the competitive spectrum during Sunday's final eliminations of the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas, NV. In the opening stanza, the GM Performance Parts Pontiac GTO racer combined a seven hundredths of a second starting line advantage with a solid 6.791-second, 202.58 mph pass to defeat defending Pro Stock Jason Line on a holeshot, with Line posting a quicker 6.775-second elapsed time in the losing effort.
In the second round against David Connolly, however, Johnson was relegated to the less-preferred right hand lane, a major detriment in light of eleven of the first twelve rounds of Pro Stock competition being won by racers on the left side of the track. Unfortunately, WJ was unable to break this trend despite his respectable .048 reaction time and representative, 6.802-second time, 202.61 mph pass, as his opponent covered the quarter-mile in 6.750-seconds to advance to the semifinals.
Despite seeing his weekend end prematurely, Johnson was encouraged by his team's continued progress.
"Lane choice probably had a significant impact on today's outcome, but comparing our runs to the others in the right hand lane during that round, we seemed to do all right, although it obviously wasn't enough to get us to the next round. But going into eliminations we knew the lanes were uneven, so the ultimate responsibility falls on us for not holding on to lane choice.
"However, we're definitely making progress with our GM Performance Parts GTO. We were able to make a couple runs on Saturday with our new engine, which looked extremely good on the dyno, and even though the tune-up was off, it showed some promise. On top of that, we have a few new things coming up that will hopefully put us right back with the best of them. Even the driver's alarm clock seems to be working better, so we're heading in the right direction – we just need to pick up the pace a little bit more."
TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.
After qualifying seventh, Warren Johnson experienced both ends of the competitive spectrum during Sunday's final eliminations of the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas, NV. In the opening stanza, the GM Performance Parts Pontiac GTO racer combined a seven hundredths of a second starting line advantage with a solid 6.791-second, 202.58 mph pass to defeat defending Pro Stock Jason Line on a holeshot, with Line posting a quicker 6.775-second elapsed time in the losing effort.
In the second round against David Connolly, however, Johnson was relegated to the less-preferred right hand lane, a major detriment in light of eleven of the first twelve rounds of Pro Stock competition being won by racers on the left side of the track. Unfortunately, WJ was unable to break this trend despite his respectable .048 reaction time and representative, 6.802-second time, 202.61 mph pass, as his opponent covered the quarter-mile in 6.750-seconds to advance to the semifinals.
Despite seeing his weekend end prematurely, Johnson was encouraged by his team's continued progress.
"Lane choice probably had a significant impact on today's outcome, but comparing our runs to the others in the right hand lane during that round, we seemed to do all right, although it obviously wasn't enough to get us to the next round. But going into eliminations we knew the lanes were uneven, so the ultimate responsibility falls on us for not holding on to lane choice.
"However, we're definitely making progress with our GM Performance Parts GTO. We were able to make a couple runs on Saturday with our new engine, which looked extremely good on the dyno, and even though the tune-up was off, it showed some promise. On top of that, we have a few new things coming up that will hopefully put us right back with the best of them. Even the driver's alarm clock seems to be working better, so we're heading in the right direction – we just need to pick up the pace a little bit more."
posted by David @ 10:40 PM
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