Bristol: Warren Johnson Saturday summary

WJ Steps Up, Qualifies Fourth in Thunder Valley

Warren Johnson completed a solid qualifying effort on Saturday at the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, TN. On each of his first three attempts, Johnson bettered his previous time, with his 6.741-second, 204.54 mph best earning the GM Performance Parts GTO driver earning the fourth position for Sunday's final eliminations. Making "The Professor's" performance even more remarkable was the relatively unknown component sitting in his race car's engine bay.

"We were using a brand new engine this weekend that we really didn't have a handle on. In fact, I had already left for Bristol when they dynoed it. However, it showed some promise, so we decided to bite the bullet and start working with it here, because if it does show potential, as it did in qualifying, we need to get a second one done for (son) Kurt's car as soon as possible.

"We went back to what we would consider a normal set-up for our GM Performance Parts GTO this morning, and came up with that 6.741-second run right off the bat, so we're pretty certain we don't need to reinvent the wheel on this one. That was an excellent run based on the tune-up we had in the engine. We'll tickle the chassis a little for tomorrow morning, as well as the gear and the clutch, and make the most of it. I'm definitely ready to defend my title from a year ago."

-j2r