Joliet II: Jim Yates final summary

Jim Yates Loses Close Race to Warren Johnson

Jim Yates did his best to knock Warren Johnson out of eliminations in Sunday's opening round of the Ameriquest Mortgages Nationals at Route 66 Raceway.

Yates had a .033-second reaction time to  Johnson's .042 but Johnson reached
the finish line six-thousandths of a second  ahead of Yates' Sea Ray
Boats/B&W/Wiley-X Eyewear Pontiac GTO.  The  winning time was 6.766 seconds at 204.54
mph to a 6.781 at 203.61  mph.

"We did a good job tuning the car and it ran really, really  well for the
conditions," said Yates.  "He had an exceptional light and  beat us.  I'm happy
with the way Jamie (Yates, is son/crew chief) is tuning  our GTO.  We just
need to qualify in the top half of the field.  Lane  choice is important.  It
could've made six-thousandths (of a second)  difference in our race."

Johnson had lane choice by virtue of  faster qualifying speed.  Both drivers
ran 6.684 seconds, Johnson at 206.99  mph to Yates' 206.35 mph.

"We were closer to the faster cars here,  too," Yates continued.  "Greg
Anderson (currently leading the POWERade  Series standings) and Warren ran 6.76s
and Kurt Johnson and Jason Line ran  6.75s."

This was just the third race for the Pontiac GTO. Yates was  runner-up at
Reading, Pa., two weeks ago.  He remained 10th in points with  900 but he's four
behind No. 9 Jeg Coughlin and 63 behind No. 6 Greg  Stanfield.

Yates and the NHRA tour go to Dallas for the Oct. 7-9  Fall Nationals at the
Texas Motorplex, a race that was postponed because of  Hurricane Rita.

-jyr-