Columbus: Kurt Johnson Friday summary

Fourth on Friday, Kurt Johnson Looks for More in Columbus

Rain threatened to wash out the opening day of qualifying at the Pontiac Excitement Nationals, as torrential rains drenched the Columbus area with nearly three inches of rain. However, the POWERade Drag Racing Series' patience was rewarded with clearing skies late in the day, allowing both sessions to be completed.

Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Cavalier Racing team took advantage of the opportunity, making two solid runs down the new surface at National Trail Raceway, with their best effort of 6.849 seconds, 201.37 mph on Friday evening placing them in the fourth position.

Despite the strong effort, KJ immediately began looking for ways to improve, and headed into Saturday's final twin time trials with his sights set on the top.

"Given the uncertainty of the weather, we made a conservative run tonight, making sure to just get down the racetrack and into the show. We knew our ACDelco Cavalier could pick up four to five hundredths off our first run just because of the track getting cooler and more rubber on it. The clutch may have slipped a little too much, and our sixty foot fell off a bit from the killer times we had been running, but we accomplished our primary objective.

"We'll see what happens tomorrow morning. We're in the left lane, where the majority of the quicker times have been run. Maybe we can pick it up a little and move up a few positions. We're certainly going to give it a try."

-j2r-