Olds-Timer Johnson Has Made the Most of This Partnership

Everyone wants to go out a winner, to finish a career on top. Few do, but Oldsmobile is doing it in drag racing.

Officials of the General Motors division announced a year ago that 1995 would be its last in the National Hot Rod Assn. because the company was planning to turn its motor racing attention to the multi-valve Aurora V8 in international road racing after 12 years with the NHRA.

Warren Johnson, drag racing’s “Professor of Pro Stock,” made it a memorable finish by clinching his third pro stock championship two weeks ago in his 1200 horsepower ’95 Cutlass Supreme. On the way to the title, Johnson ran the quickest and fastest quarter mile in NHRA history with a 6.948 second run at 199.15 m.p.h. last March in Houston.

Also during the year, Johnson scored Oldsmobile’s milestone 400th NHRA national event victory.

The 52-year-old, silver-haired veteran from Duluth, Ga., will be at the Pomona Fairplex today, looking to close out Olds’ final year with yet another victory in the Winston Select Finals. Qualifying begins at 1:30 p.m. and continues Friday and Saturday to set the 16-car fields for Sunday’s final eliminations.

“This might be the final event on this year’s schedule, [but] in reality it’s the first race of 1996,” Johnson said. “In 14 weeks we’ll be back at Pomona for the Winternationals. That’s not a lot of time when you consider that we’re building four new cars and taking on a major new engine development program.

“I can sum up my feelings [about winning the championship] in one word: relief! With all of the rainouts and rescheduled events we had to deal with this season, it seems like we’ve run 30 races already this year.”

Johnson will be in a Pontiac Firebird next year, as will his son Kurt, who is third in pro stock standings going into the final event. Jim Yates of Alexandria, Ga., who drives a Pontiac, is second, 195 points ahead of the younger Johnson.

Pomona has been good to Johnson. He won the Winston Select five times (1982, 1983, 1988, 1992 and 1993) and the Winternationals three times (1987, 1993 and 1994). For winning this year’s crown, he will pick up $125,000 at the NHRA banquet Monday night in Cerritos.

Winning pro stock was made easier for Johnson this year because of the bizarre circumstances surrounding the Dodge team of defending champion Darrell Alderman and Scott Geoffrion. Alderman and Geoffrion were first and second, respectively, when vandals broke into the Team Mopar headquarters in Fairfield, Ill., on May 16 and destroyed their cars and equipment.

The team was expected to return to NHRA competition in mid-June, but a variety of problems have kept it out.

“If it ain’t ready, it ain’t ready,” said Mike Sullivan, co-owner of the Wayne County Speed Shop team that builds cars for Alderman and Geoffrion. “It’s as simple as that.”

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Stock cars will take over Phoenix International Raceway’s mile oval this weekend in what may be one of the most significant events in the track’s 34 years.

Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt will continue their tense battle for the Winston Cup championship and its $1.3-million bonus in the Dura-Lube 500 on Sunday. Gordon holds a 162-point lead over the seven-time champion with two races remaining, Phoenix and the NAPA 500 Nov. 12 in Atlanta.

Two races ago, Gordon led by 302 points.

Also on the agenda will be season finales for the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour late model sedans on Friday and the SuperTrucks on Saturday. The final Winston West points race will be held in conjunction with Sunday’s $1.1-million main event, although the championship was determined two weeks ago when Doug George won the Sears Manufacturing 300 in Bakersfield.

A.J. Foyt, 60, who has won five races at Phoenix--four in Indy cars and one in a USAC stock car--will be coming out of retirement again to drive a Ford in the SuperTruck and Winston Cup races.

Lance Hooper of Palmdale needs only to qualify for Friday’s Southwest Tour race to win the championship, but he will be challenged by track record holder Ron Hornaday Jr., also of Palmdale. Hornaday will try a racing triple, driving in the Winston Cup, SuperTruck and Southwest Tour events. He is a two-time winner of the Phoenix Southwest Tour race.

Motor Racing Notes

MIDGETS--Billy Boat of Phoenix has clinched the U.S. Auto Club’s Western States championship with four races remaining, but he will be in action Saturday night when the midgets return to Ventura Raceway. Also on the program will be TQ midgets and karts.

INDY CAR--Former world motorcycle road racing champion Eddie Lawson has been named to drive the Galles Racing entry in next year’s Indy car season. Lawson will replace Adrian Fernandez, who left Galles to drive for Barry Green’s CART championship team. Green was left without a driver when Jacques Villeneuve announced he would move to Formula One next season.

DRAG RACING--The Brotherhood Raceway on Terminal Island, home to many low-budget racers, has been closed by the L.A. Harbor Dept. to make room for a coal storage facility. . . . Shirley Muldowney isn’t racing on the NHRA Winston circuit, but the three-time world champion is still setting records. She ran 287.65 m.p.h. in a match race that broke the Cordova (Ill.) Dragway track record.

MISCELLANY--Derek John Hill, 20, of Santa Monica, won the prestigious Ferrari Challenge International race in Mugello, Italy, last week, driving a Ferrari 355. On the same day on the same track, his father, Phil--the former world Formula One champion--won a Ferrari Historic race. . . . Robert Overacker of Camarillo, who drowned when his parachute apparently failed during an attempt to ride a jet ski over Niagara Falls, was a former street stock racer at Ventura Raceway and Saugus Speedway. . . . La Carrera Panamericana, the 1995 Mexican road race, will start Friday in Tuxtla Guiterrez and end next Thursday at Nuevo Laredo on the Texas border after an 1,800-mile journey. Clay Regazonni, left paralyzed after an accident during the 1980 Long Beach Grand Prix, will drive a 1954 Dodge equipped with electric hand controls.