Johnny Ahten’s Bedtime Story from Las Vegas

Courtesy of Athen Racing

Las Vegas, NV – Johnny Ahten has a bedtime story to tell his grandchildren. It’s all about the 2011 Big O Tires Nationals. The story starts out with a pleasant tale of a hard working drag racer and team, with lots of perspiration, anticipation, tire smoke and nitro fumes.  Just as the story is getting good, it abruptly ends in a cliff hanger.

Johnny’s race weekend started out with a tire spinning first qualifying round. This was a good sign that the car was making the kind of power the CleanBoost Team knew it had. Second round qualifying on Friday saw good first half numbers during the planned shortened run. The team was excited about the data, and was ready to give the last session on Saturday their best shot yet.

This is where the story begins to make a plot twist. The professional classes in NHRA race to 1000 foot. Prior to Ahten’s last qualifying run, the pro’s had their session. In the changeover, the timers were inadvertently not changed to 1320 feet. Johnny made a good run and it looked good enough to beat the 5.539 bump spot. The problem was that without an official time in the quarter mile, the run was not recorded properly. The bottom line was Johnny Ahten and the CleanBoost Dragster was not able to qualify.  

“There is no easy answer,” said Ahten. “It’s like football. A flag was thrown on the play and all you can do is shake it off and run the next play. We had good numbers to half track and I am confident we would have been in the show.”

The story is not a mystery, a tragedy, or a tear-jerker. It is a real world life story with a unique ending. The story will not be forgotten, but a new and better chapter is waiting to be written the next trip down the quarter mile.