Ahten Continues His Quest after First Round Vegas Exit
Courtesy of Athen Family
Las Vegas, NV – Making it to the first round at the Big O Tire Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is just part of Johnny 
Ahten’s quest. It’s more like a vision quest, which usually means looking for spiritual guidance and purpose. Ahten’s purpose is to go quick and fast on the racetrack, and that is truly a spiritual thing. Ahten was seeking deep understanding of this purpose in Vegas. Taming the beast that is the Nitromethane injected Top Alcohol Ahten Racing Dragster is not an easy thing.
Johnny Ahten got an eyeful of the Las Vegas sky on his first qualifying run. The Island Renovations/ 801 Racing/ Fireman’s Brew Dragster yanked up the front end and did its best impression a ten year-old on his bicycle popping wheelies. The car pulled 3.3 g’s until the finality of the wheelie bar put an end to that reach for the stars. That unloaded the tires and the resulting 15.688/31.67 time slip might be astonishing for a Schwinn, for a Top Alcohol Dragster it only meant the quest continued.
Back in the pits Crew Chief Al Ahten, assisted by Howard Katano, Bob Ahten, and Kevin “Shark” Colvell, knew they were close. The brain trust backed it off a bit for Saturday’s first session to get the car off the line in one piece. After 2.5 seconds of cooperation, one cylinder decided it didn’t want to play with the group any longer and dropped out. A short time later there was a mass drop-out by the remaining cylinders at one thousand feet which resulted in a 5.667/236.09 timeslip. That gave the Ahten Racing Team an external position to view those internally. On the outside looking in is no place to be going into the final qualifying session. As it turned out, it was a doozie.
“For the final qualifying session our Vision Quest began to take shape,” said Johnny Ahten. “We put together a 5.451/251.53 run that put us in the number twelve spot after our run. We were all excited on the top end. Then a few cars ran and our position started dropping. I stood on the starting line to watch the last car that could bump us out. When that didn’t happen I was excited to be racing on Sunday. Racing the number one qualifier was the only downside. I knew my guys would have the car ready.”
Sunday’s first round match up was a daunting task with Jim Whiteley as the opponent. As the two cars left the line, Ahten knew things were not going his way. The motor wasn’t its normal self at the hit but Ahten’s top end charge netted a 5.451/251.53. It was Ahten’s best run of the weekend, unfortunately Jim Whiteley ran a 5.283/273.22 and the weekend’s racing was over. The Vision Quest for Johnny Ahten continues at the Vegas Regional race this coming weekend. It is there where the search for the right knob to turn, the right thingamajiggy to tweak, and maybe even a witch doctor to cast away evil demons. Johnny Ahten will not forsake his Vision Quest, because that is his special purpose.
