DomesticDemonSS

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J., June 18, 2005 - Kurt Johnson captured his first raceday pole this season and delivered the first ever No. 1 qualifying spot for the Chevy Cobalt in NHRA Pro Stock competition today at the 36th annual K & N Filters Super Nationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. The 42-year-old Johnson moved to the top of the qualifying leader board after last night's run of 6.675 seconds at 206.48 mph, and looked just as strong during today's final session of time trials when he turned in the quickest lap of the afternoon at 6.690 seconds.

"When we came here our initial goal was just to keep the car straight," said Johnson. "But I think we found a real nice sweet spot to work with. You want to be able to tune the car whether you're racing on a 120 degree racetrack or an 85 degree racetrack, without making a lot of changes and that's what we've been able to do. We keep throwing stuff at the car and it gets better and better - I think we have a real hot rod here. As far as the body style (Cobalt), we kept working on it to run the kind of speeds we knew it could run, and now compared to where dad (Warren Johnson) has his car right now, the Cobalt looks to be about a half-mile faster than the Pontiac.

"When we came out with the new Cobalt the chassis was completely different than my Cavalier. Even though it shined at Bristol it threw us a curve because it had too much bite, so we had to calm it down. Now it wants to go down the race track, it's making great numbers on the computer, and it's just a matter of pinpointing them and making the right adjustment."

It is the 24th career pole for Kurt Johnson, his third at this event (1994, 1998, 2005) and his first since the 2003 U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Over the past four races, Johnson's ACDelco Chevy Cobalt has been on quite a performance run recording a qualifying effort of second at Columbus ( Ohio), third at Topeka ( Kansas) and second last weekend at Chicago. His only final-round appearance this season came at Columbus following his strong showing there in time trials, and he's hoping to parlay his strong pre-eliminator effort this weekend into his first win of the year.

3fo893013L

To comment about the ram air in the other posts. I think we need that but on a slightly smaller scale

AZESS

About all Kurt Johnson's cobalt has with a street driven SS/SC Cobalt is the name. This thing is running 500 cu. in. of big block on a tube frame and as much carbon fiber as he could find. Naturally aspirated, no less. This is my favorite NHRA class. You get 16 guys qualified within a tenth of each other and they are dumping clutches and shifting manually.

Awesome car......... but then again, so is his Dad's GTO (#1 qualifier at Brainerd this past weekend).

Edit: Kurt won the race at Brainerd though.

05BurntOGSL

sdfas

05BurntOGSL

oops