Jason Line Back on Pole in Englishtown, Closing in on Top Seed for Horsepower Challenge
- 20 Jun 2012
As of late, the Pro Stock qualifying battle seems to remain between Line and 2009 K&N Horsepower Challenge Champion, Allen Johnson. The rumble was apparent again to all, right from the start of session one on Friday, with Line sailing to the top with his 6.524 at 212.16 during the final pair, bumping Johnson's 6.537 that he made just moments prior. Although the air conditions were quite cool during session one, by the time the teams took to the track later in the day of Friday, the air had cooled to only sixty-eight degrees and a track temp of only eight-four, thirteen degrees cooler, which teams pay very close attention to for these cars that make the majority of their E.T. and power right from the hit. But even with the cool air, you just can't burn water and the higher water grains were holding teams back from being able to take full advantage. "It slowed us down a bit," Line admitted Friday evening of the water laden air. "We didn't run all we could have and obviously everyone missed it a little bit. There's something we are just missing a little. I feel like we should have been able to go at least a 6.49," Line added. K&N's Mike Edwards was able to improve during session two with a clean 6.529, moving up well over a hundredth of a second from his earlier run. That was good enough to temporarily bump Allen Johnson from the number two spot. But in a class where thousands are spent to gain all-important thousandths of seconds in performance, Allen Johnson grabbed the number two spot back from Edwards in the very next pair, by just .001 with a 6.528.
But even with the air conditions, it was Jason Line over in the other lane that was making the most noise when he not only held on to his provisional number one spot, he improved on it with a 6.518. The pass would technically remain as the number one time through the remaining two sessions the following day, as well as one of the quickest Pro Stock run of the entire weekend. On Saturday, Allen Johnson may have posted his own 6.518, but it was Line's faster 212.76 to Johnson's 211.76, that would hold Line on top. The outstanding effort gave Line his fifth K&N Low Qualifier bonus of the year and his tenth since the 2012 K&N HPC began in late June of last year. "I believe we should have run quicker. We just didn't," Line said after all sessions were in the books Saturday. "It's just one of those things, and we will try to figure it out. Getting the racetrack and the weather to cooperate is sometimes difficult. A.J. did run the quickest in the last session, and I'm sure if we all went up there again tonight, we could go quicker." "We have the Camaro working right," he continued of his teammate, Greg Anderson's newly unveiled 2012 Chevy Camaro, "Which is more important than anything else for us right now." Although very excited to be hopping into his own new 2012 Summit Racing Chevy Camaro when the teams roll into their next NHRA event in Bristol, Tennessee, Line has been busy at the shop since returning from Englishtown event trying to determine what happened during his final round match up with teammate, Greg Anderson when parts breakage cost him being able to give team owner Ken Black his 100th win. "It's not going to be a quick fix," he said. "So I've been spending time doing some failure analysis on the pieces and parts, and at the same time working on getting ready to go do some testing in the new Camaro that I will debut at Bristol." "I don't work on the car. I just give the guys the engine," he pointed out. "I take care of the engine-side and the only time I touch the car when we are not racing, is when they want me to come sit in it to scale [weigh]. At the track, I tune on all three of the team's engine, mine, Ronnie's [Humphrey] and Greg's." Just like Line's old-reliable GXP, both his and Anderson's new 2012 Pro Stock Camaro's take full advantage of the style and added performance of the K&N Pro Stock scoop. "The truth is, there is added performance there," he pointed out of the K&N scoop. "When you are looking for thousandths of a second and all of the effort that it takes to refine something like this, it's been a great addition to our program. Something like this actually changes the tune-up enough and actually by a few thousandths in performance and that's the difference between A.J. and myself. Plus it's great that we can run K&N product and be able to showcase it in their race that's coming up at Norwalk very soon and the 2012 K&N Horsepower Challenge." Just two races remain for NHRA Pro Stock teams to earn points for the highest single race day winner paycheck of $50,000 that will go to the overall champion of the 2012 K&N Horsepower Challenge. Line remains at number one seed for the shootout, followed by Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson, Allen Johnson, Erica Enders, with a tight battle for number six and seventh spots continuing between Ronnie Humphrey, Vincent Nobile and Rodger Brogdon. Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
