Sugar Hill, Ga. – A NHRA national event drag race is, by definition, an acceleration contest between two vehicles over a measured quarter-mile. Simply put, whoever crosses the finish line first four times on Sunday, without fouling or committing any other infraction, ends the day in the winner’s circle. Therefore, it is paramount that teams do whatever is necessary to extract the maximum performance under any conditions.
This challenge is multiplied in the ultra-competitive Pro Stock category, where the margin of victory is often measured in ten-thousandths of a second. With teams constantly looking to gain the edge, crucial last-minute adjustments to the tune-up are now made in the moments just prior to staging at the starting line.
In the first five races, Kurt Johnson and his ACDelco Cobalt crew have acquitted themselves well, combining a runner-up in Houston with semi-final finishes in Pomona and Las Vegas to stand fourth in the POWERade points standings. Entering this weekend’s Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals in Atlanta, GA, they are determined to elevate their game even further and score their first win of the 2008 season.
“Races are won and lost on the starting line, and with the way track conditions have been changing from hour to hour and even pair to pair, there is even more pressure on teams to make the right call at the very last minute,” said Johnson. “For example, with two key adjustments at the starting line, I believe we could have won our race in Vegas. It would have picked up both my reaction time and the car’s performance by a couple hundredths, which would have been enough to get us the win.
“However, we wanted to make sure we got down the lane, and, as a result, were just a little too conservative, and ended up making one of our slowest runs of the weekend. We finished third, and feel we should have been first. The ACDelco Cobalt crew has done a great job all season, and in the last few races, we’ve been the most consistent car in Pro Stock. But, we’re only really happy if we win.”
To accomplish their goal, Johnson believes a more aggressive approach is in order. Fortunately, they have the benefit of added tuning information on their race car from the last race, which was the first race of the season held under warm conditions. Having answered most of the questions about their chassis’ warm-weather performance in the Nevada desert, the Johnson-led crew is now ready to attack the Atlanta Dragway track.
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