Allen Johnson
My wife Pam and I had a great visit to Key West over Memorial Day weekend to attend a surprise birthday party for Virginia Humphreys, Justin Humphreys’ mom. They had about 30–40 people out there and it was a great time. Then we got to ride a big 70-foot yacht from Key West to Sanibel Island, where the Humphreys have a home. We spent another three days in Sanibel playing golf, hanging out and laying by the pool. We got to play a really good course down there, Gulf Harbor in Ft. Meyers, a real exclusive course that we were able to get on. I played the Par 3 holes at two under par; there were three Par 3s, and I birdied two of them. So I was pretty happy with that.
Pam and I went straight from Sanibel Island to Chicago on the Thursday before the race there and enjoyed the fine Chicago weather—rain one second and then sun the next! I was really disappointed with our outing at Chicago, a quarterfinals exit. We should have carried over our great runner-up performance at Topeka to Chicago and done just as good, but we just basically missed the setup.
We stayed over and tested at Route 66 on Monday and I think we found the changes we needed to make. I fly out today for the Englishtown race, where I took the No. 1 Qualifier Award in 2006 and advanced to the semifinals last year. The forecast looks to be hot and grimy, and our Mopar® Dodge Avenger usually excels under those types of conditions. I’m confident the J&J Racing team and I can have a quick rebound from our Chicago weekend.
My dad Roy is getting everything ready for his Stock debut in his new Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak car at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway next weekend. After his test session at Bristol a few weeks ago, Dad and the J&J crew have got the 5.7-liter HEMI® engine apart, going through it and making sure everything is rubbing together right. Some of the little problems he had, such as with the brakes, they are fixing and improving and getting prepared.
Bristol is a huge race for us, since it’s our home track. My goal is to get my first win there and Dad’s is to qualify No. 1 in Stock Eliminator. It would be awesome if we could both do that in our respective Mopars at the same race and really give ’em something to talk about it!