Allen Johnson posts back to back wins in Pro Stock at Sonoma
This past weekend, the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
ascended upon Infineon Raceway in Sonoma California for the 25th
annual Sonoma Nationals and for the second event in a row – Team Mopar driver
Allen Johnson took home the Pro Stock victory.
For the second event in a row, Team Mopar driver Allen
Johnson put his Dodge Avenger in the top qualifying spot for the Pro Stock
class. Allen’s run of 6.517 at 212.09
miles per hour made him the top qualifier with fellow Avenger drivers Vincent
Nobile(5th), V. Gaines (7th), Jeg Coughlin(9th)
and Matt Hartford (16th) joining him at there were a total of 5
Dodge Avengers in the Pro Stock field.
It should be noted that Greg Anderson did not have the top qualifying
time but he did have the highest speed in qualifying.
In round one, three of the five Dodge entries were
victorious starting with Jeg Coughlin, who went slower than first round
opponent Warren Johnson but thanks to a big starting line advantage, Jeg got
Team Mopar off to a good start. Vincent
Nobile took on Warren’s son Kurt Johnson in R1 and thanks to a red light start
by Johnson’s Pontiac GXP, Nobile got the free pass to the second round. Top qualifier Allen Johnson took his Mopar Avenger
to the starting line against fellow Dodge driver Matt Hartford, pulling an
advantage at the start and driving away to make short work of Hartford while V.
Gaines fell victim to former Dodge driver Larry Morgan in a very close race.
In round two, we unfortunately had another Dodge-v-Dodge
matchup pitting Jeg Coughlin against teammate Allen Johnson but the race was
over in a hurry when Coughlin lost traction shortly after the launch. The other Dodge Avenger in the second round
was Vincent Nobile, who unsuccessfully took on Jason Line in the Summit racing
Camaro – leaving only Allen Johnson to carry on the torch for the Dodge
teams. Even though Johnson had what
amounted to a free pass in the second round, he still turned in the fastest
pass of the round with a 6.517 at 212.46 miles per hour.
In the third round, Allen Johnson took on Jason Line – with the
Mopar Avenger using a starting line advantage and a faster pass to advance to
the finals. The other half of the final
four pitted Greg Anderson in his Camaro against Mike Edwards in a Pontiac GXP
and when Edwards red lit, it set up a final round between Anderson and Allen
Johnson.
In the final round, Greg Anderson pulled a near-perfect
reaction time (0.001) and had an early advantage but the super-fast Mopar
Avenger and Allen Johnson ran Anderson down – winning for the second time in
two events.
On the season, Allen Johnson now sits in the first spot with
a lead of 54 points over second place Greg Anderson. Vincent Nobile currently holds the 5th
spot, Jeg Coughlin is currently 10th, and V Gaines is 11th
overall.