Ahten Finds Upside of Early Exit at Northwest Nationals

KENT, WA – Johnny Ahten and the Island Renovations / Combust Filters team gained more than they lost at the Protect the Harvest NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways. The results page may say Ahten was ousted by the former world champ Chris Demke in the first round, but the real winner was the Ahten Racing tuning book. Two runs in the 5.30’s will be a confidence builder heading into the final stretch of the season.

“We ran our quickest run of the weekend and got beat,” said Ahten. “Running a 5.34 and finishing on seven cylinders is a positive we are going to build on. We have been dealing with some clutch issues and I think things are starting to come together. I love racing at this track and we are excited by what we learned.”

Ahten started Friday’s first qualifying session with a dandy 5.415/258.37 on the warmest track of the weekend. That put the Stump Puller in the number five slot. In the second round of qualifying there were some issues on the start that resulted in Ahten gazing at the Seattle sky and the run was aborted. Saturday’s final qualifying session started out with tire shake and after a quick slap of the pedal, Ahten motored to a 5.393/263.36 with six cylinders firing at the finish. That put Ahten in the number ten position going into the first round of eliminations and a match-up with Chris Demke.

As the lights came down, Ahten got a small advantage off the line, but Demke’s 5.219/27305 was way too much for Ahten’s cylindrically challenged 5.34/264.65.

Johnny and the team return to Pacific Raceways on Aug 19-21 for a LODRS Divisional race where they have the lessons learned from the Northwest Nationals and a positive attitude. Stay in touch with Johnny and Ahten Racing at facebook.com/JohnnyAhtenRacing, and on Twitter and Instagram at: @Ahtenracing and on Pinterest at pinterest.com/ahten