Championship Drag Racing

Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals
Pomona, CA
(November 9-12)

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Kurt Johnson Mark Christopher Auto Center Chevrolet Cobalt

Pomona, Saturday: Kurt Johnson completed a solid qualifying performance on Saturday, with his ACDelco Chevy Cobalt capturing the fourth starting position for Sunday’s final eliminations of the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, CA.   After opening with a solid 6.719-second pass on Thursday, the second-generation racer continued to work on his race car, bettering his time with each attempt.  Finally, in the fourth and final session on Saturday afternoon, Johnson rocketed down the California quarter-mile in 6.688-seconds with a top speed of 206.23 mph, capping his qualifying effort with the third quickest pass of the round.

Having earned his best starting position since his second-place effort at last September’s Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, IN, Johnson set his sights on completing the picture and capturing his fourth win at the NHRA season finale.

“I think our ACDelco Cobalt is fully capable of winning this race tomorrow.  We’ve been working on our performance in the early part of the run, and for that last session we made some extensive changes.  It seemed to like it, because we were right near the top of the page in the first eighth mile, which makes us pretty happy.  However, we still have some work to do, because our motor almost seems like it has a governor on it at the top end, going only so fast in the back half. 

“Even so, we’re pretty happy to go 6.719, 6.709, 6.708 and 6.688 in qualifying.  We have a good, consistent race car that continues to go straight, and, starting fourth, we’ll have lane choice for the first round tomorrow, which is something we didn’t have in the last two races.  We’re doing whatever we can to make up the fifteen points between ourselves and Mike (Edwards, who currently holds the fourth position in the season’s points standings), and with only one day left in the season, we want to make the most of it.  After all, tomorrow night we want to be celebrating in the California sunshine.”

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