Van & Stella Johnson, Preston & Chandra

Official Showing

February 20, 2005 - The first official showing of "Zubie III" will be on February 23, 2005 at Capital High School Car Show. The show will take place in the parking lot behind the Auto Tech classroom at Capitol H. S. on Fuqua St. in Baton Rouge. Time for the show is 10 am until approximately Noon. This car will be the highlight of the show!

February 23, 2005 - The wait is over! Zubie III has officially been shown to the rest of the world. The wait was worth it. This car is an engineering marvel. Van Johnson joined a small group of Bracket Masters Racing Team cars at the first Car Show at Capitol High School. The show was put on for Mr. Kevin Stuart's Auto Tech Program. Many of the school students in other classes were allowed to come and enjoy the show. Many of the staff, including the principal, Mrs. Lewis, and two of the assistant principals attended. Van was as happy to show his new creation as we were to see it. The car looks and sounds very good and strong. Van's trailer will be the subject of another article at a later date. It is as nice as the car. You can eat off of the floor of the trailer and anywhere on the car! Take a look at the PHOTOS.

Super Chevy Show!

March 5, 2005 - Van Johnson, Stella, Preston and Aaron, along with other family members were at the Super Chevy Show on Saturday. Van entered the Chevelle (Zubie III) in the Super Chevy Car Show and his car won the "Outstanding Workmanship" award. This was well deserved. There was not another car that was close. Did you know Van's car has gold plated battery terminal connectors? (Van says gold conducts best!) Talk about attention to detail. Photos of Van's car and his plaque should be in Super Chevy Magazine in a couple of months. We will have photos shortly.

March 6, 2005 - Van and family were presented the Super Chevy Show award for "Best Appearing Crew". Van's 1969 Chevelle also won the Winners award for "Best Chevelle, 1968 and above". He also received an embroidered silver Super Chevy Show jacket. Van was already on cloud nine from winning the Workmanship award on Sat., and to win two more awards on Sat. was just icing on the cake. Congratulations to Van, Stella, Preston and Aaron for their showing at the SCS! The awards are validation of all the hard work, attention to detail and dedication to a project that the family has put into this project. Four years of hard work has paid off. When the car goes into track testing, nothing but the best is expected at that time too.
Van's Super Chevy Show Photos

Van & Chandra Testing

March 23, 2005 - Van's Chevelle runs as good as it looks! Van and Chandra made a total of 5 passes during their testing session. Van drove the car to a best ET of 9.66 @ 133.82 MPH. I believe his original goal for the car was 10.00 flat. That was about three years ago. His first easy pass was an eleven second run and run #2 was a 10.05 sec. pass. On the third pass, Van did a good burn-out and leaving from idle, had a 1.333 sixty ft. time, and the car motored down the track at 9.66 @ 133 MPH. As I stated, Van was leaving at idle and NOT using his trans-brake! We discovered the throttle linkage was only allowing the butterflies to open about 3/4 full open. This may have contributed to the low MPH readings. The car was also "popping" as it went down the track on each run. The jets were changed to try to get rid of the lean condition, and when we finished we had not nailed the correct jetting. Plugs were very light at the end of each run.

Just think, when Van finally gets the throttle linkage corrected, determines the correct jets, and Van uses the t-brake, this car is going to run down in the low nines! Van and Chandra are going to have to start making license passes to get their S/G license.

Chandra made a trip around the parking lot when we first got to the track just to get a feel for the car. After Van made his three passes, Chandra got behind the wheel again. After a long talking too by Dad, she was told her objective was to just go to the line, stage and get down the track on an easy pass. Her first pass was good, with the car going straight and she did everything correct. She found the exit lanes, got a feel for the car and the track. On her second pass, she was still not allowed to do a burn-out, but staged and left hard with a fairly good light and really got into it. Her time slip indicated, 11.54 @ 123.97 MPH! Excellent pass for her second time down the track! Stella, Van and Chandra were ecstatic about their first day of testing. PHOTOS

May 15, 2005 - A special thanks goes out to Mr. Van Johnson and Mrs. Stella Johnson who worked all day on the gate at the "Battle on the Bayou" race at Louisiana Raceway. Mr. Johnson, working with the Bracket Masters Kids, greeted people as they came through the gate. The BMRT Kids were, Lizzie Herbert, Ryland Gardner, Preston Johnson, Myeshia Whitfield and Justin Jackson. They worked all day and represented our team very well.

June 1, 2005 - Van and Chandra made license passes at No Problem Raceway Park today. Van completed all of his passes, finishing up with a good 9.62 @ 140 MPH run. Chandra made 4 of her required 6 passes. She will come back at a later date and finish off her runs. The car ran very well. The whole Johnson crew was on hand for the license passes. PHOTOS

June 16, 2005 - Van called and informed me that he received his NHRA S/G Competition Drivers License - June 11, 2005. Congratulations Van!!!!

June 24, 2005 - She Did It!!! Stella Johnson reports:

CHANDRA MADE HER TWO PASSES LAST NIGHT AT NPR. THE GIRL WAS ON IT. HERE ARE HER NUMBERS:

1ST 2ND

60FT 1.366 1.352

330FT 3.959 4.053

660FT 6.143 6.248

1000FT 8.034 8.137

1/4 MILE 9.643 9.749

MPH 139.40 138.77

REACTION .091 RED LIGHT

EARLIER DURING THE NIGHT SHE TOOK HER OWN STREET CAR DOWN THE TRACK IN TIME TRIALS. SHE GOT USE TO THE LINE AND BEING NEXT TO OTHER CARS. SHE MADE ABOUT 3 OR FOUR PASSES. SHE WAS VERY RELAXED WHEN IT CAME TIME MAKE HER LICENSE PASS. YOU COULD SEE THAT SHE WAS NOW READY AFTER THE FIRST PASS. I THINK SHE IS OVER THE HILL NOW AND IS READY TO RUN. SHE WAS PUMPED AS WELL AS VAN (TWO PUMPED PEOPLE, WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO) SMILEEEEEEEE, IT WAS A GREAT NIGHT. EVERYTHING ELSE WILL COME WITH TIME AND PRACTICE. SLIM AND ANOTHER PERSON AT THE TRACK OFFERED TO SIGH OFF ON HER SHEET.

OF COURSE VAN TOOK ONE TIME TRIAL DOWN THE TRACK WITH A 9.705 1/4 MILE @ 139.60 WITH A SHAKY START. HIS REACTION TIME WAS .678. CHANDRA HAD BRAGGING RIGHTS LAST NIGHT. YOU KNOW THAT EVERYONE LET VAN KNOW IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations Chandra! She has earned her official NHRA Competition Drivers License.

July 8, 2005 - Van and crew went to No Problem Raceway Park for testing. The objective for this test session was twofold. First to learn how to use the delay box leaving on the top light and second to learn how to use the throttle-stop to run Super Street, 10.90 second index. During the past week, Van and Preston installed an electric throttle-stop which operates butterflies under the carb. to slow the car and be able to hit the number. This amount of work is a lot to do in one practice session. Just making your mind shift from the third bulb on the tree, up to the top bulb is enough for anyone to learn in one night.

Van has a GM 400 type transmission that has a very low first gear, and it has three fwd. speeds. Van needed to determine how much time to put into the throttle stop before it activated off the line. Do you let it complete the 60' time, or do you let it come in right off the line as a lot of the drivers do? If you let it come in immediately, you take the chance that it will still be in low gear when it comes back on and you may spin the tires (with the low gear in the 400 tranny).

Van made 4 passes and his best 60' of the night was 1.289 sec! This is a real improvement from the 1.333 sec 60' that he had had earlier in the year. Tonight was the first time they had left the line using the transbrake. I would love to know what the car would have run without the throttle-stop holding it back. Van did not make any full passes because he was concentrating on his starting line procedure. As I said before, it is a lot to learn just going from the third bulb to the top bulb, and he was trying to get accustom to using the transbrake button instead of the footbrake.

At the end of the test session, a lot had been accomplished and Van is ready to continue his education and testing. Chandra and Preston were along for the test session and I was told that both of them learned a lot about setting up the Digital Delay Mega 85 throttle-stop and delay inputs.

August 24, 2005 - Problems! While testing at No Problem Raceway Park, with Chandra driving, the 400 transmission locked in 1st gear and she could not get it to shift automatically or manually. The trans locked up completely and skidded to about the 1000 ft mark on the track. Van and the track personnel rushed to her aid. Chandra and the car were not hurt at all. They will try to determine the problem and get the car back in shape in time for the Church's Chicken - Louisiana Drag Classic. Chandra is looking fwd. to the Ladies Challenge against Marva and Tery Red.

October 7, 2005 - The Johnson Family were at No Problem Raceway Park for Friday Test & Tune. Van made two passes and put the car into the trailer. Both passes were spinning and out of the groove, and were not representative of what the car will do. Stella & Preston joined Skip, Reggie and Van in the stands and watched the other racers for the remainder of the night.

October 8, 2005 - Van took the Chevelle to Eunice (Louisiana Raceway) for test and tune. What is good about testing in Eunice is, it is in the daytime and there are normally not a lot of cars and you can just take your time and do almost anything you want, at your own pace. Almost like renting the track, but better because it only costs $20.00 to test all day.

During Van's testing at NPRP on Friday night, he never got into 3rd gear in his newly rebuilt transmission. He finally got to air it out. Everything worked perfect and the car ran great. Van did all of his own work on the GM 400 transmission and he was very proud of his work. The last transmission only lasted for 29 runs, so Van is waiting until he gets past that number to call it a success.

The car had some good numbers during the testing session. The best was, 9.653 @ 134.57 MPH. The 60' times were off due to the track not being prepared, but he still got a 1.358 sec. sixty foot time on that run. The car is proving to be very consistent.

This was the first time Van had been to this track and he was really impressed with the laid-back testing session. He got to meet Arthur and the staff at Louisiana Raceway and thanked him for all their help.

10/29/05 - Van and Chandra were back at Louisiana Raceway to complete testing on their transmission and to work out some other bugs. The car ran fine and the transmission was perfect. Van did all the work on the rebuild of the GM 400 transmission.

Chandra did all the driving and she has a best time of 9.73 @ 135 MPH, with a 1.332 sixty ft. time. The car is very consistent. Some allowances have to be made for the track prep in Sat. Test & Tune. Van and Chandra are now ready to enter some bracket races.

Van is about to install his throttle stop so he can practice for Super Street. His plans are to get the car ready for a divisional meet and then enter a national event some time in 2006.

11/11/05 - Van and Chandra returned to No Problem Raceway and this was the first time that they planned to enter competition. Chandra came off the trailer, using the trans-brake for the first time, with a 9.49 @ 141 MPH with a 1.274 sixty ft. time! This was the best ever for the car. She made three more time trials before entering the first round of competition. In the first round, she ran against the Stampeede Bandit Mustang and had an excellent .009 light, but the Bandit got the win light when Chandra broke out and ran another best time of 9.45 @141 MPH. Everything worked excellent tonight and Van was very happy. Chandra has started to gain some fans and she is cutting excellent lights which brings praise from the other drivers.

March 30, 2006 - Copied from National Dragster: Chandra Johnson, of New Iberia, LA., will make her class debut in Division 4 this season with a Zubie Racing-built '69 Chevelle, which has won a Super Chevy Show award. Procell Brothers built the car's 532-cid engine.

Sept. 10, 2006 - The Johnson Family attended the Louisiana Drag Classic and took home the trophy for Longest Distance Traveled. The team was also in the running for the best dressed team as the whole family was wearing their new "Zubie Racing" polo shirts. Van's brother, Daughter Chandra, Preston, Stella and Van were there to support the race.

Nov. 4, 2006 - Van, Stella and Preston tested the Chevelle at Eunice (Louisiana Raceway) to try to set up the throttle stop for Super Street Class of NHRA. Van will compete in several divisional and national events in 2007. The car still looks and runs very good. Van will be the primary driver until Chandra can recover from surgery. She is doing well and expects to be back in the car in 2007.