E-Town Chevy Dragsters
Tommy Johnson Jr. hasn’t had the best of season so far, but after fighting fire at the NHRA SuperNationals at Englishtown, NJ, he rose from the ashes and got his first Funny Car win. His Skoal-sponsored Impala SS was burned down to the bare chassis in the first round of eliminations, and his crew had to rebuild. The team bounced back strong and made it to the final round.
It wasn't easy in the final, though, as Tony Pedregon, also in an Impala, gave him a race, leaving first by a hundredth of a second. But Johnson managed to catch the former champ and pass him to win with a 4.994 at 305.84 mph to Pedregon's 5.022/306.33 mph.
"We had to change everything after that fire, right down to the fuel tanks," Johnson said. "That was a bad fire. It snuck up on me because the run was going fine and then, blam, there was this huge fireball.
"It was blazing pretty good. I couldn't see. I couldn't breathe. It was time to go," said Johnson, who made a hasty retreat out of the roof escape hatch as soon as he got the car stopped.
Chevrolet was well-represented in the sportsman classes and we’ll take a tour of the cars at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
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| Jeff Tripp of Jackson, NJ, was Super Stock champ. His ’84 Monte Carlo ran 9.039/146.78 to defeat the 9.624/132.71 of Jim Harrington’s Camaro. Tripp has been racing this same Monte Carlo at E-Town for several years. (action photo by Debbie Gastelu) | |
Calvin Hill’s I/A Comp Beretta was out in the first round.
