Sugar Hill, Ga., – This weekend, the POWERade Drag Racing Series will kick off the second quarter of its 2008 season, heading to Gateway International Raceway for the O’Reilly Midwest Nationals in Madison, IL. So far, it has been a fairly productive season for Kurt Johnson and his ACDelco Pro Stock Cobalt Racing team, as they come in to this event fourth in the championship standings, highlighted by a No. 1 qualifier and runner-up finish in Houston.
Although pleased by his solid qualifying and elimination round record to date, Johnson’s complete satisfaction will only come with a return to the winner’s circle. Therefore, the second-generation racer heads into this race focusing on areas where, by his own admission, improvement must be made.
“We’re looking to cover all the bases, paying attention to every single detail,” said Johnson. “It’s something we strive to do at every race. For example, so far this season, we’ve concentrated on finding more power, and seeing what this ACDelco Cobalt wants, and we’ve made progress in both areas. Although we’ve made some good runs, we haven’t quite gotten the consistency we need to win on a regular basis.
“At the same time, my reaction times have been good on occasion, while there are other times I’ve missed it by a couple hundredths, and we can’t have that. I can’t have a .60 or .70 light and expect to win. I need to be in the twenties and thirties consistently throughout the race, so we’re going to get to work to make that happen. It’s not that we’ve been avoiding it – we just need to spend a little more time on it, putting the whole package together so we can put this thing in the winner’s circle.”
Bolstering the Johnson-led crew’s confidence heading into their weekend is their record of success at the Madison quarter-mile. Although facing yet another newly repaved racing surface, a solid tuning notebook and a potent race car has them looking forward to arriving in the Prairie State.
“You always enjoy going back to a track where you’ve won in the past, which we’ve done a couple times at Gateway,” said Johnson. “It’s got a new surface, and the people I’ve talked to tell me it’s a better track than the one we just raced on in Atlanta. If the starting line and the concrete is prepared properly, and the texture is the way it needs to be, there’s no reason we can’t go A to B on the first hit, and be consistent from there on.
“I feel pretty positive about this ACDelco Cobalt’s chances for this weekend. We’re going to attack the track, and do what we can to bring everything together. It’s time to get a darn trophy.”
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