You're only the seventh member of the drag racing community to be inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame – a tremendous honor.
WJ: "I guess I won't really have a feel for the impact of it until I see all of the other members who were inducted previous to myself. I'm sure that what all that probably says out of that is that everybody who has been inducted has had more of a passion for motorsports than anything else. Once you have a passion to do something, you do whatever it takes to be successful, at least in your own right at it, and then, if you're enjoying what you're doing, that gives you longevity."
You've struggled early in the season, but now it looks like things are starting to come around. After five races, you're only 43 points outside the top five. Things are beginning to fall into place for your program.
WJ: "Performance-wise, we really weren't too far off the page the first couple of races, and driving-wise, I just couldn’t get used to this car. We made some changes in it, and the last couple of races, it's started to come around as far as
being comfortable driving it. The performance is incrementally creeping up. We feel that we're in better shape now, even though we're still back in 10th place, we're in better shape than we have been in for a long, long time because our performance is increasing at just about every race. We have some stuff coming along that will probably put us where we need to be performance-wise. I'm always motivated to succeed. It's one of those things that, yeah, the road is a little rocky and bumpy to begin with, but we'll figure it out."
Atlanta Dragway is your home track and familiar terra firma. Is this is a race you're looking forward to?
WJ: "That track is only about 40 miles from the shop here. When we go there for a national event, versus when you go out there to test, its two completely different racetracks. The track is treated differently by the people prepping it for a national event than it is by the local people just for testing purposes, so the only thing that is the same are the lumps and bumps in it. The coefficient of friction of the surface at the starting line and so forth are completely different at a national event than they are for a test session."
You've won at Atlanta a few times.
WJ: "I think I've won a few races there, but I don't keep track of those kinds of stats. I think both Kurt and I will be picking up the pace considerably here so if everybody else, hopefully, stays status quo, then we should catch up and go right by them."
Is there anything else that you would like to accomplish?
WJ: "Well, I’d certainly us like to get back to the performance level we were at a few years ago and win another championship or two, because that is the whole object of this exercise. We’re creeping back up on it, and think we should be okay in our performance level shortly, and we’ll have to see if we can get Kurt or me the championship. It’s not important if it’s Kurt or I winning as long as the trophy and check come back to Sugar Hill."
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