Pro Stock Motorcycle rider in top ten but not clinched …

NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Steve Johnson is well practiced in the grueling five-day adventure known as the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. The veteran rider from Irondale, Ala., knows how to win the marquee event, then have it mistakenly taken away only to be returned days later in a hailstorm of controversy.

A glitch in the timing system first gave the victory to his opponent in a race that Johnson was confident he’d won. As he turned off the track, he turned to the assembled media and plaintively asked, “I lost?” It was a bitter pill to swallow, but less than 24 hours later, after careful examination of the race video it was apparent to all that Johnson had won by almost a wheel width.

Pro Stock Motorcycle rider in top ten but not clinched …

 

 

NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Steve Johnson is well practiced in the grueling five-day adventure known as the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. The veteran rider from Irondale, Ala., knows how to win the marquee event, then have it mistakenly taken away only to be returned days later in a hailstorm of controversy.

A glitch in the timing system first gave the victory to his opponent in a race that Johnson was confident he’d won. As he turned off the track, he turned to the assembled media and plaintively asked, “I lost?” It was a bitter pill to swallow, but less than 24 hours later, after careful examination of the race video it was apparent to all that Johnson had won by almost a wheel width.

“Yeah, I was crushed when I thought I lost,” Johnson said from his shop in Irondale as his team prepared for the trip to Indiana. “Getting that close to winning the most important race of the year only to come up short is incredibly depressing. I had a real tough night that Labor Day Monday, but the next morning everything changed.”

Johnson didn’t get to celebrate in the hallowed U.S. Nationals winner’s circle, but he didn’t mind. He just saved up the energy for the next event in Reading, Pa.

“When all was said and done, our team had won the NHRA U.S. Nationals,” he recalls. “No one can ever take that away from us, but right now I’m packing that away in my memory banks. Right now, here in 2008, the object is to win it all again, and believe me, there’s a lot at stake here.”

Johnson is one of two riders provisionally in the NHRA’s Countdown to One program and while he’s presently ranked ninth going into the final event, it appears unlikely that he’ll be knocked out of the Top 10 by the time it’s over. However, he knows that in racing, anything can happen.

“We’re pretty confident right now,” he says, “but we can’t let up, not for a single second. The U.S. Nationals is the only race in which we get five rather than four qualifying attempts. We can’t afford to blow a single opportunity.”

Nor can he afford an electrical glitch.