Words by Jon G. Knapp
Photos courtesy Warren Johnson Racing
5/9/05

As Warren Johnson makes his last campaign this year as a Pro Stock driver, we will run a series of highlights, photos and memories from each racetrack prior to each NHRA event.

WJ’S FIRST NHRA ATLANTA DRAGWAY RACE - 1981

Race Car: 1981 Oldsmobile Starfire
Performance: WJ Qualified Seventh, 8.583 seconds, 157.34 mph
Lost to Bob Glidden

In Warren’s Words:

“The only reason I attended that race was because it was right in our back yard. At the time, I was concentrating more on my IHRA program, coming off consecutive championships. However, I had already developed a small-block Olds program, so I decided to go out there and see how it fared. Obviously, it wasn’t that far off.

“That Starfire was a pretty good little car. In fact, that was the car I used to make the first 180-mph Pro Stock run in NHRA history. I ran the heck out of it for a number of years.”

Notes of the time:

* The 1981 race was the first year of the NHRA’s Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

* This was WJ’s first race with his new Olds Starfire, which featured a small-block 340- cubic inch V-8.

* This was Warren’s first NHRA race of the season, and only the 34th of his NHRA Pro Stock career, as at the time he was also competing in the IHRA, where he won the Pro Stock championship in 1979 & 1980.

* The field for final eliminations was only eight cars, with 17 making a qualifying attempt, and featured legendary names such as Lee Shepherd, Bob Glidden and “Dyno” Don Nicholson, as well as current Mike Edwards engine builder Frank Iaconio.

* Shepherd was the No. 1 qualifier with an 8.403-second pass in his ’81 Camaro, one of four Camaros in the starting line-up. In addition, there was WJ’s Starfire, Glidden’s Ford Fairmont, Nicholson’s Mustang and fellow Minnesotan John Hagen’s Plymouth Arrow, which qualified on the “bump” with an 8.602-second e.t.

* Professional winners that day included Lee Shepherd, who defeated Iaconio in Pro Stock, Tripp Shumake, who edged Kenny Bernstein in the Funny Car final, and Shirley Muldowney over Terry Capp in Top Fuel.