Wilson Manifolds and 2012 NHRA Pro Stock world champion Allen Johnson announced on Friday at the NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta a new partnership that will place Wilson’s industry-renowned intake manifolds atop the Mopar Hemi powerplant in Johnson’s Marathon Petroleum/J&J Racing Dodge Dart for the remainder of the 2016 season.

With the NHRA’s move to electronic fuel injection in the factory hot rod category this season necessitating a completely new approach to intake manifold design, the relationship between Johnson and Wilson is certain to pay dividends with the J&J teams’ horsepower development under the new rules package.

“It means a lot to our team to bring Wilson Manifolds on as a team partner for 2016 and beyond,” said Johnson.“Wilson Manifolds is the leader in the industry in all forms of racing for manifolds so it’s just a natural evolution for us to join forces.”

Keith Wilson, the founder of Wilson Manifolds, echoed that sentiment, speaking on the work ethic and dedication of Johnson’s team in arguably the toughest heads-up class in all of drag racing.

“I’ve known Allen and Roy for a long time because I’ve been around Pro Stock my whole life,” said Wilson. “I’m very excited to join with J&J Racing because they’re true racers at heart. They have great work ethic and they have a history with winning the Championship in 2012. They’re very dedicated people. I’m very choosy on who we do our business with.”

We try not to show our hand and how we do things so that’s why we wanted to work with just one team,” Wilson continued. “I’ve had everyone in the paddock contact us but J&J Racing is a high caliber team and working with them exclusively allows us to have an intimate relationship where we can be truly honest and be an open book. At this level, you can’t just guess and throw things at it. You need some real feedback. This is an opportunity to work with a good group of people.”

“I think the relationship will be a very good one and he [Wilson] is definitely an expert in what he does,”said Johnson. “It’s just a natural progression in Pro Stock’s evolution. We’ll continue using CFE [Carl Foltz Enterprises] for our cylinder heads and hopefully the addition of the Wilson Manifolds will compliment that and we’ll go forward in a really positive direction.”