For the first two days of qualifying at the Auto Club of Southern California Finals, Warren Johnson and the GM Performance Parts GXP Racing team battled to adapt their race car to the hot and slick racing surface of the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. As a result, they entered Saturday’s twin sessions still looking to secure their spot in the starting field.
However, any concerns about their participation on race day were quickly addressed in the morning session, as WJ posted a solid 6.677-second time, as well as the top speed of the weekend at 208.59 mph to place himself deep in the field. The Professor then completed his qualifying effort with a slightly quicker 6.670-second clocking to earn the 10th starting position.
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“We had been working on our GM Performance Parts GXP for the past two days trying to adapt to these conditions. The surface was a lot slipperier than we are accustomed to here in Pomona, so we really haven’t been able to load it up as much as we would like.
“Although we weren’t as aggressive as we should have been, we were finally able to make two decent runs today to get us in the show and to give us information we’ll use to set the car up for tomorrow. It’s the last race of the season, so I think we’ll go for broke. The way I see it, you’re either going to see something spectacular, or something really spectacular. Only time will tell which one it will be.”
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