Commerce: Kurt Johnson Saturday summary

Starting 12th, KJ Looks to Pick Up the Pace in Atlanta

Qualifying for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta, GA, proved to be a good news, bad news situation for Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Chevy Cobalt Racing team. On one hand, they made four solid runs, capturing the twelfth starting position with their 6.685-second, 206.83 mph pass on Saturday morning. However, they were never quite satisfied with their race car's performance, and enter Sunday's final eliminations determined to more efficiently transfer their horsepower to the tricky Atlanta Dragway surface.

"We seemed to be a couple hundredths off to the eighth mile on our first three attempts, and then, unfortunately we didn't have the lane beneath us on the last run to really learn anything. We tried a few new things this weekend trying to improve our performance, and just haven't hit the sweet spot yet. Even so, we were strong enough to make the show, which is pretty encouraging.

"Looking at the sheets, our ACDelco Cobalt seems to have enough power to be in the top four or five, but haven't had a clean run to the eighth mile. We'll make a few adjustments for tomorrow, moving some ballast around, see if we can let the clutch out first and get to the finish line first."

-credit: j2r