Following last weekend’s NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals in Atlanta, Steve Johnson’s Snap-on Tools Suzuki team made a mad dash back to Alabama to make a thorough inspection of their hardware, and it may pay off big time this coming weekend.
“We were a little disappointed in our performances in Atlanta, ” Johnson said just before heading for the airport and another series of personal appearances. “Both Mark Peiser, our crew chief, and I felt that something’s been ‘missing’ since we ran that six second elapsed time at the Gatornationals in Florida, and we knew the best place to really tear things apart was here in our shop. There’s no need to go into a lot of detail, but you can take my word for it that we’ve made a number of changes to our combination, and we’ll know on Friday afternoon whether or not those changes were the right ones.
“We’re continuing to look at the fuel injection situation, but have not yet decided to go in that direction. Those systems are pretty pricy right now, but if we get to this weekend’s O’Reilly Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway and see that we need to go that way, we’ll make the transition without hesitation. ”
With Johnson off to the St. Louis suburb of Madison, IL ahead of them, the team will follow in their 18-wheeler rig later this evening. “You know, the funny thing about all the traveling is that the guys sometimes think I have it easy because I’m flying, ” Johnson said. “Then I’ll sit down with them and go over my schedule in detail and offer to trade. They can do the flying, and I’ll drive the truck. So far, no takers! “For me, making personal appearances, particularly in front of middle-, high-school or technical school students, is anything but a chore. I look forward to those because of their importance. If I can influence a handful of students about the need to complete their educations and get a good technical background in whatever field they want to enter, no matter how many hours I have to sit around airports waiting for a flight to do so, it’s well worth it.
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