Notes of the time:
* This win was the 19th of Warren's Pro Stock career, and
came in his third Pacific Raceways (then known as Seattle
International Raceway) final round appearance.
* This was WJ's first (and so far, only) win from the tenth
starting position.
* The race was now held as part of the three-race, midsummer
"West Coast Swing", and was now called the Seafair
Nationals.
* No. 1 qualifier Don Beverly, who claimed the top spot with
an e.t. of 7.344 seconds, was upset by veteran Darrell Alderman
in the first round.
* Jerry Eckman anchored the field with a 7.422-second elapsed
time.
* WJ was the beneficiary of Butch Leal's -.035 red-light
in the semi-finals, propelling him to his 35th final round.
* In the final, WJ used a .034 light to gain the advantage
by six hundredths of a second, and used a 7.419-second, 185.26
mph run to hold off Allen's quicker but losing 7.390-second,
189.41 mph run.
* It was no surprise that WJ would win on a holeshot, as
he had been first off the line in the first two rounds, highlighted
by his .005 second r.t. in the first round against Joe Lepone
Jr.
* In addition to WJ & Allen, other current Pro Stock
competitors competing that weekend included Mark Pawuk, Larry
Morgan, Kenny Koretsky and Rickie Smith.
* The field consisted of Olds Cutlasses, Chevy Berettas,
Pontiac Trans Ams and a Dodge Daytona, and Glidden's Ford
Probe.
* Other winners that weekend were Joe Amato, who defeated
current Larry Dixon crew chief Dick LaHaie in the Top Fuel
final, and Bruce Larson over current Top Fuel owner Kenny
Bernstein in Funny Car.
WJ'S MOST RECENT SEATTLE WIN - 1998
Race Car: 1998 GM Goodwrench Service Plus
Pontiac Firebird
Performance: WJ Qualified first, 6.884 seconds,
200.53 mph
Defeated Scott Geoffrion, Tom Martino, Jim Yates and Kurt
Johnson
In Warren's Words:
"On the last qualifying pass, I had started feeling
a vibration at about 1100 feet, so I shut it off early. It
still ran a 6.89, which was quick, but the speed was off.
We checked over everything we could find, but for some reason,
never spun the motor over until the next morning, when the
harmonic balancer was flopping around like a dead fish, so
we knew we had a broken crankshaft. The back up motor was
obviously adequate, so we were fortunate in that department.
I put Kurt in the lane with the sunshine on the tree in the
final simply because his eyesight is better than mine, and
I wanted to even things up a bit."
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