Charlotte: Warren Johnson Saturday notes

A Steadily Improving WJ Will Start Third in Concord

Warren Johnson and the GM Performance Parts GXP Racing Team completed their qualifying effort for the Carolinas NHRA Nationals in impressive fashion, making the quickest pass of the day in the heat of the afternoon on Saturday to claim the third starting position for Sunday's final eliminations. Running in the left-hand lane, Johnson seemed to defy the nearly 90-degree temperature and oppressive humidity, blasting through the quarter-mile in 6.685-seconds with an top speed of 207.98 mph, which was second in the class only to his 208.01 mph speed from the morning session.

"We're still hunting and searching for the set-up that will give our GM Performance Parts GXP the performance in the early part of the run to match what we run in the back half. We made a decent pass in the morning and made some changes for the afternoon session, with the car responding well in the first sixty feet. We'll now turn our attention to bettering our performance in the 60-to-330 foot range, and if we're able to get that straightened out, we should be in great shape.

"There really are no words to describe how good this new facility really is. Comparing it to the other tracks where we have already been this season, it simply raises the bar, which Bruton (Smith) and his people have done three times in the past, starting with Bristol, then Las Vegas and most recently Sonoma. It truly is a pleasure to race here."

-credit: j2r