Pomona NHRA Final Chevy Notes
1 February 1998
PRO STOCKKURT JOHNSON, AC DELCO CAMARO Z28, 11th qualifier, 6.971/196.93. "We ran an .05, .04, a .98 and a .97, so we're headed in the right direction. We are still having problems with traction out there, we're shaking and vibrating and carrying on between 60 feet and about 150 feet. If we get that knocked out of it we have a couple of hundredths left in it. We would be right in the thick of it. We can run .95 out there. Mark Osborne is making perfect runs out there and we're not making perfect runs. For four runs we're not doing too bad. We're excited, we're confident." ON NEW CAMARO BODY: "We're trying to adapt our chassis to this body and that's giving us a whole new learning curve. I've been working on these things for 20 years. You learn something new every day." NOTE: Kurt became the quickest and fastest Camaro driver in Pro Stock history today.
LARRY MORGAN, RAYBESTOS CAMARO Z28, didn't qualify for tomorrow's final eliminations. He was 19th with an e.t. of 6.998/196.76. "Unfortunately we ran at the wrong time. We hurt the motor in yesterday's run, but we really didn't know it and it was like three hundredths of a second slower on today's first run. We changed the engine for the final run. Had we known we had the problem with the other engine we would have put the new one in earlier. We could have run a .96 or .97 (in today's first run with the new engine), but stuff happens. I think we will be all right from now on. I feel pretty good considering we haven't been able to spend enough time testing. We'll be back on track. This is kind of the first race for us with the new car and we have a few bugs we have to work out. I don't want to make many excuses because I know we will be all right."
FUNNY CAR
RON CAPPS, COPENHAGEN CAMARO Z28, after today's first run: "The car went out and dropped a cylinder about one second into the run and when a 600-hp engine drops one cylinder there's over 700 horsepower in just that one cylinder, so it makes the car move. It made an immediate move to the left. We came back here and found out the fuel pump had been going away. It's better we found that today rather than tomorrow in eliminations. It could have bitten us." In today's final run, Ron smoked the tires and didn't improve his time.
CHUCK ETCHELLS, KENDALL/MA MA ROSA'S PIZZA/SUPERWINCH CAMARO Z28, 5th qualifier, 5.027/308.43. "We're having a little bit of trouble with the balance of the car. When we're really aggressive the front end wants to lay up too high. It makes it undriveable. So we're trying to move some weight from the back to the front, to try to get some balance to the weight, but we're not there yet." TOP FUEL DRAGSTER:
Team Chevrolet drivers Larry Dixon and Cristen Powell made the field. Dixon is No. 6 qualifier with an e.t. of 4.653 and a top speed of 316.45. Powell is No. 15 qualifier with an e.t. of 4.933/304.15.
