WJ Opens Brainerd Qualifying in Eighth

BRAINERD, Minn. (8/11/06) -- Warren Johnson had an exciting start to his qualifying effort at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals when his car rolled the starting line beams, activating the timing clocks early and costing him valuable time on his first attempt. Even so, "The Professor" was able to derive a substantial benefit from that run, taking the data from that attempt and making several adjustments to better suit his car to the Brainerd International Raceway track.

As a result, he was able to bounce back with a solid 6.771-second, 203.61 mph run in the evening session, positioning his GM Performance Parts GTO in the eighth position entering Saturday's final time trials.

"Although we made a bad run in the first session, we certainly took a step in the right direction tonight. We had to wait a little while they cleaned up Rizzo's oil down in front of us, and scrubbed a little bit off in the early part of the run, but we'll take this GM Performance Parts GTO from there and keep working on it.

"If the track is at all like it was tonight, we should be in pretty good shape tomorrow, because we were sixteenth quickest in the first sixty feet on tonight's run, but second quickest in last half. Given that fact, if the weather and the track cooperate there's no reason we shouldn't be able to pick up the pace and get in one of the top four positions."