Kurt Johnsonengines, racing and competing with dad — keeping up with one of pro stock’s best
interview and photo by John Knapp
How long have you been a drag racer, and what was your first professional race?I have been a drag racer my entire life, dating back to when Dad (six-time Pro Stock champion Warren Johnson) was building engines back in his shop in Fridley, Minn., in the late ’60s and early ’70s. My first professional race was my Pro Stock debut at the 1993 Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.
What’s your favorite thing about Pro Stock racing?I think, more than anything else, it’s the challenge of trying to be quicker and go faster than everyone else, when you have pretty much the same horsepower and equipment. In my opinion, that makes it more of an art and a science than just simple competition.
At the starting line, is your father just another competitor, or is it something more?Obviously, it’s something more, simply due to the fact that we put his engines together, and we know exactly what he has in terms of equipment. On top of that, it’s tough to beat his experience—he definitely has an advantage in that department. The best part of racing each other is that we know one of our cars will advance to the next round. Of course, the best case scenario is that we meet in the final.
Do you build and test your Cobalt’s engines yourself?Absolutely. We run the engine program, not only for my ACDelco Cobalt, but also Dad’s GM Performance Parts GXP in the back corner of our shop in Sugar Hill, Ga. We handle everything from ordering parts and assembly to tuning them on the dyno.
How do you recruit technicians for your race shop/team?We’re always looking for people, and are constantly receiving résumés—we have a stack of them at the office right now. The biggest thing is finding someone who is truly interested in what we do. You don’t want to hire someone just to have a body there. We’re confident we can teach people to do things the way we like, so we want someone who wants to put their heart and soul into it and be part of the team.
How do you keep the team’s morale up on long race weekends? That’s easy. It’s all a matter of having a positive attitude, with proper communication being the key. If you have good communication among your team members, you can go a long way. It can be positive or negative, but keeping the streams open is the biggest thing.