KURT JOHNSON’S 203-MPH SHOT MISSES THE MARK
Pro Stock racer Kurt Johnson really drew a rise out of the fans attending the Advance Auto Parts Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. During qualifying, Johnson’s AC-Delco Pontiac carded a sport’s best of 203.68-mph and then backed it up with a 202-mph blast. New NHRA national mark? Not exactly?

Johnson, who along with his dad Warren could definitely use the national record points given the rampaging Jeg Coughlin Jr., didn’t buy the time when he saw the time slip.

To paraphrase, Johnson remarked, “Realistically to run that speed we’d have to make almost 90 more horsepower than we’ve had. My dad’s car and mine are virtually identical and he has been running between 198 to 200-mph all out here, and to pick up three mile per hour all of sudden, doesn’t make sense. It’s probably jumped the top-end lights somehow, tripped them with the rear wheels or something on that order.”

NHRA was ready to give him the mark and had initially accepted the 203 as legit. However, NHRA’s Graham Light and the tech crews looked Johnson’s car over after the two Friday qualifying sessions saw that the front nose had more travel than usual, noted that the incremental times would not support a 203-mph blast and overruled the speeds.

GLIDDEN RECORDS FACING TWO-PRONGED ASSAULT
As most race fans know, Pro Stock great Bob Glidden’s 85 NHRA career wins mark is under heavy fire from John Force primarily and Warren Johnson secondarily.. In winning Atlanta, Force bagged his 84^th title and looks almost certain to break the mark before the summer's over. “W.J.” is at 80 on the win chart and also looks likely to break the Glidden barrier as well.

However, another Glidden mark is starting to feel the heat, too. From the 1978 NHRA Summernationals to the 1979 NHRA Mile-High Nationals, Glidden won an NHRA record nine straight event titles. However, Pro Stock racer Jeg Coughlin Jr., and his Dick Maskin-tuned Jeg’s Mail Order Parts ‘97 Cutlass shows all the potential to do that this year. In winning Atlanta, Coughlin won his sixth of seven 2000 national events, and his fourth in a row. He currently leads second-place man Warren Johnson, 755 to 466 in the Winston Pro Stock top 10 and looks to be a shoo-in for the season championship. He is so badly outclassing the field currently that five more wins is not totally out of the question.

TOMMY MAUNEY SWITCHES TO SUPERCHARGER
The worst kept secret in drag racing is that Tommy Mauney is carrying through on a statement he first made after the last IHRA race of the 1999 season. Agent 1320 was told that after that race Mauney wanted to make the switch from nitrous oxide injection to supercharging.

Evidently after the IHRA race at Rockingham Mauney made the decision for sure. The Agent has learned that Mauney has purchased Outlaw Pro Mod racer Joey Moore’s engines. These are the engines that powered the first Pro Mod style car to a sub four second pass.

Mauney will return the engines to IHRA Pro Mod specs and put them into the new ‘41 Willys owned by the Parson’s brothers. As this is being written the team is preparing to test and should have the car ready for the next IHRA National event which will be held at Grand Bend, Canada.

Rumor has it that Joey Moore will assist in tuning the car. It is also interesting that another rumor has Moore buying Scotty Cannon’s “tune-up” book after the IHRA Pro Mod World Champ moved on to NHRA Fuel Funny car. This team could be stout and if they are it could start a mass exodus in Pro Mod to the blower combination.