Ahten taking a break from fighting fires, to light the fires in Vegas

Ahten taking a break from fighting fires, to light the fires in Vegas.

<img src="http://www.insidetopalcohol.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=198&thumb=1&d=1267284946" align="left" borders="0"/>Las Vegas, Nevada - Johnny Ahten knows all about fighting fires. The Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain works in the second busiest firehouse in the United States. This weekend Ahten and the CleanBoost®/Island Renovations A Fuel Dragster team hope the fires are blazing long into Sunday as he battles the heavy hitters in the talented Top Alcohol Dragster class at 10th annual NHRA Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"We have some ideas for the tune up for this challenging track," Ahten said. “Our last two runs at Vegas in April were solid with some great data, and we know what this track and car are capable of.” Having some time off recently allowed the CleanBoost®/Island Renovations team to get back some much needed parts including one of their motors from BAE. “Being self-funded you have limited resources when it comes to parts, so you have to rebuild and fix where you can. We machine and re-use as many parts as we can and thanks to the quality of the CleanBoost® Performance Motor Oil, we are able to save a lot of components as well.”

Ahten is anxious to get back in the car after a month long layoff. "I look forward to going out there and running," said Ahten. “My Dad, (Retired Fire Captain) Al will be there, as well as the rest of the crew Bob (Ahten), Howard (Katano), “Rocky” (Todd Rockwell), and ‘Shark” (Kevin Colvell) and we are all ready to go give this thing a run.” Ahten currently sits in third place in the Lucas Oil Sportsman Division 7 points-race behind point’s leader Jim Whiteley and Chris Demke.

“We know we are not in the championship run, but we want to get out there and make some good runs and maybe spoil someone’s weekend and do right for our sponsor’s.” Qualifying begins Friday at 10:30AM in what should be a stout class of top alcohol competitors.

About Johnny Ahten:

Ahten attended Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School in 1998, and for the Santa Clarita, Calif. based racer, the hook was set. In 1999, he competed in his first full season of Top Eliminator West and earned Rookie of The Year honors. Earlier this season, Ahten captured his first career A/Fuel Dragster win after dominating the IHRA Pro Fuel Category, setting track records in elapsed time and speed in the process at the Salt Lake Nitro-Jam at Rocky Mountain Raceway. When not racing, Ahten is a Captain with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. He gets to drive fast on and off the track. “Both my racing and my career can be very similar,” noted Ahten. ”Both require good people skills and performance under pressure.”