Championship Drag Racing

CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
Joliet, IL
(June 9-12)

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Tommy Johnson TBA Funny Car

Chicago, Sunday: Tommy Johnson Jr. and Don Prudhomme’s Skoal Racing^SM Chevy Funny Car team continued to go rounds Sunday as Johnson drove his Monte Carlo to a semifinal finish at Route 66 Raceway.

Johnson knocked off Tim Wilkerson and Tony Pedregon before being narrowly edged by Gary Scelzi in the semifinals.

Johnson used the second best reaction time of the opening round of flopper eliminations to score a wire-to-wire victory against fellow Chevy racer Wilkerson, the No. 4 qualifier. The Skoal Racing Monte Carlo blasted to a run of 4.807 seconds at 325.45 to best Wilkerson’s pass of 4.862 at 314.69.

The six-time NHRA winner raced to the early lead over second round opponent Pedregon using a .044 of-a-second reaction time before the Skoal Racing Chevy spun the tires and slowed to a performance of 6.649 at 207.94. Pedregon’s Monte Carlo overpowered the Route 66 Raceway drag strip early in the run as the 2003 NHRA Funny Car champion coasted to a run of 9.456 at 124.50.

The Skoal Racing braintrust of Mike Green and Johnny West gave Johnson a strong horse in the semifinals as the Skoal Racing flopper blistered the Route 66 Raceway quarter mile, powering to a pass of 4.180 at 323.66. However, it wasn’t enough to overcome Scelzi’s run of 4.802 at 309.06.

 “I’m not disappointed at all,” Johnson said. “It’s nice that the team is coming back around. We struggled after the win at Pomona a little bit, but we lost a lot of close races. We’ve got some breaks recently and the car is running good. That probably helps bring some breaks as well. It’s a 180-degree turnaround from last season.

 “We had a brand new chassis this weekend and had to figure out what this car likes. The last qualifying run was the key. The car ran well and we found what this car likes. The guys were confident that it would run what it did in the first round. The second round, we just barely missed it. That could be do to the track and the intermittent rain sprinkles. The guys have a good handle on the tune-up right now. I can’t wait to go to Englishtown (N.J.).”

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