Championship Drag Racing

K&N Filters SuperNationals
Englishtown, N.J.
(June 17-20)

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Kurt Johnson ACDelco Pro Stocker

Reports: Sunday Saturday Pre-race

Englishtown, Sunday: Kurt Johnson gave his POWERade championship hopes a boost by driving his ACDelco Cavalier a runner-up finish at Sunday's final eliminations of the NHRA Supernationals in Englishtown, NJ. Johnson's strong showing, coupled with current points leader Greg Anderson's first-round loss, allowed him to narrow the deficit to first place by sixty points. It was Johnson's fourth final round appearance of the 2004 season, 54th of his career and second at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

Starting from the fifth position, Johnson quickly served notice that he would be a contender, posting a 6.755-second elapsed time in his first round victory over Jeg Coughlin, which was the third quickest pass of the weekend in the Pro Stock category. After defeating Jim Yates in the second round, K.J. used a 6.783-second, 204.94 mph pass against rival Darrell Alderman to advance to the championship round for the second time in three races.

Facing Jason Line in the final, Johnson made a strong bid, combining his best reaction time of the day at .041 with a 6.771-second, 204.29 mph pass. Unfortunately, it fell just shy of holding off his opponent's 6.761-second, 203.58 mph effort.

"It was a good drag race that just didn't go our way. We're really happy with our ACDelco Cavalier. It really proved itself in the heat of the day, making some of the strongest runs of eliminations in Pro Stock. We could use a little more power, because even though it was running good speed, which was all it had today.

"Even though you are never truly satisfied unless you win, we're going to leave Raceway Park happy. We gained sixty points on the leader, and any time you can do that, it's been a good day. If we're able to duplicate that performance a few times, we'll be in really good shape.

"Of course, Jason (Line) is right behind me, so that's another reason I would have liked to have won, but we have a lot of racing left. It's too early to worry about points. We're going to get to work and make some power, and let the real car guys on this ACDelco team do their job. The rest will take care of itself."

Englishtown, Saturday: The conditions for the second and final day of qualifying at the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, New Jersey were fairly similar to those encountered on Friday, with warm temperatures and relatively high humidity, preventing any major changes near the top of the Pro Stock qualifying order. Accordingly, Kurt Johnson's 6.804-second, 202.36 mph effort from Friday night remaining his run of record, earning the ACDelco Cavalier the fifth starting position for Sunday's final eliminations.

Despite the strong performance, Johnson knew he would be facing a stiff challenge on race day in order to record his first career victory at legendary Raceway Park, with three of the five quickest cars on his side of the ladder.

"We have our work cut out for us tomorrow, that's for sure. We have some heavy hitters on our side of the ladder, so we will have to be on our game from the start. We tried a few things today that I believe helped us, because we found our car's boundaries.

"We will work on the tune-up for tomorrow, and see if we can pick up a few hundredths. I think we can run in the 6.79 range, which puts our ACDelco Cavalier up there with the fastest cars, and after that, I'll just have to make sure and do my job on the tree.

"I know it's supposed to cool off tomorrow, but it really doesn't matter to me what the conditions are, because this car seems to like just about any type of race track. However, we have to make sure to make the right decisions. As my wife Kathy says, we need to make wise choices. It is an achievable goal - it's a matter of executing our plan."

Englishtown, pre-race: Ten years ago, Kurt Johnson was just starting his NHRA Pro Stock career. In just over a year, he had already shown signs of his future prominence, with three national event wins and a Rookie of the Year title in 1993. To the casual spectator, however, he was most often associated with being the son of Warren Johnson, who at the time was the two-time and defending Pro Stock champion.

All that would change on a cool Friday evening in May at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J. On his second qualifying attempt, at 8:30 p.m. on May 20, 1994, Johnson rocketed down the Garden State quarter-mile in 6.988 seconds, becoming the first Pro Stock driver to record an elapsed time in the six-second range.

Now firmly established as one of the stars of the highly competitive Pro Stock division, Johnson took time as he prepared his ACDelco Cavalier for this weekend's 35th annual K&N Filters NHRA SuperNationals presented by Strauss Discount Auto to revisit that day and the run that permanently etched his name in the NHRA history books.

"Everything went the way I had planned it," said Johnson. "Actually, I remember flying into New Jersey on Thursday, and it was very cold and hailing. I knew that if the weather cleaned itself up a little and it stopped raining, someone would definitely be going into the sixes.

"We went out for the first session at four o'clock in the afternoon loaded for bear, and it hooked and shook and was half sideways going down the track, so that going into the Friday night session we weren't even in the show.

"Back then, qualifying was not done in designated pairs as we do now, so we waited until the very end to run. Actually, I think we may have even had a problem with the car. All the heavy hitters of the time, (Scott) Geoffrion, (Darrell) Alderman and Dad, had a shot to do it before we even ran. However, Dad had an ignition problem, and Scott and Darrell had mechanical issues of their own, so the six-second barrier still hadn't been broken when we rolled to the line.

"I let the clutch out and that thing was on a string. It left with the front wheels in the air, and when I put it in second gear, it set them down and just headed for the finish line. I didn't even have to touch the steering wheel the whole way down.

"I knew it was a good run, but you never really know just how fast it is until you get to the top end. As soon as I turned off, I could see Steve Evans (the late, legendary racing announcer) running towards my car, so I knew something special had happened, and that we had gone in the sixes. To say the least, it was quite a night."

Ironically, as Johnson arrives at Raceway Park for this year's race, he remains in search of his first national event win in New Jersey. Although the second-generation driver has had his share of success at this legendary speedplant, with three wins in the non-points paying Pro Stock Shootout (currently known as the King Demon Crown), and two No. 1 qualifying performances, he is still looking for his first visit to the Englishtown winner's circle on Sunday, an oversight he looks to correct this weekend.

"I guess I won too much in 1994," said Johnson. "I won the shootout, and the $25,000 for the first six-second run, so maybe that was supposed to tide us over for a while. But, for whatever reason, Englishtown has just been one of those races that I have yet to win.

"Maybe we can put it all together this year. We certainly have the right parts. I'm really pleased with the way our ACDelco Cavalier is running right now. It's just a matter of putting it in the winner's circle again. When we won in Phoenix earlier this year, we were still learning about the car. But now we've hit on a combination that's pretty sweet, which gives me tremendous confidence every time I let the clutch out. I see no reason why we can't celebrate the tenth anniversary of the first six-second run in the winner's circle in Englishtown on Sunday night."