(Bill W) October 12, 2011 – It was just another race weekend for Wayne Johnson…Missouri on Friday and New York on Saturday! He would just miss getting a win with the ASCS-Warriors on Friday night in Grain Valley, Missouri before heading east and recording a twelfth place finish at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park in New York on Saturday. This weekend, he plans on bringing his #77x to the Lonestar Speedway Nationals in Kilgore, Texas.
Valley Speedway welcomed a group of heavy hitters to Friday night’s event. Wayne would run second in his heat after starting fourth. “Early in the night, the racetrack was a lot of fun,” he says. “It was slick, but you could move around. Towards the end, most of us were pole-putting around the bottom.”
The Knoxville, Iowa driver started fourth in the feature and made his way quickly to the front of the pack, where he would lead most of the way. “We had restart after restart after restart at the end…(Danny Lasoski) just got it figured out on the top,” says Wayne. “Under the cautions, I kept looking at my guys, and they kept telling me to stay on the bottom.”
With less than five laps to go, Lasoski took the lead on a restart. “It was slowing down off of four a lot,” says Wayne. “I really had to slow down to catch the moisture. It just slowed down enough, that he was able to get me.”
Still, it was a good night for the #77x team, and plenty of good racecar drivers were behind him including Jason Johnson, Tim Crawley, Terry McCarl and Tony Stewart to name a few. “I’m really happy with the whole deal,” says Wayne. “That was really our first night out with our team. We went to Lucas (Oil Speedway), but the motor wouldn’t run. This was really the first night out on this car, and to almost win, that wasn’t too bad.”
It was a quick turnaround to get to New York. “We got to bed at 2 a.m., and I had to meet the shuttle at 5 a.m. from the hotel to the airport,” says Wayne. “We got into Syracuse and headed over to Rolling Wheels. It wasn’t a bad trip at all.”
Wayne qualified Miles Hill’s #77x in the sixteenth spot before grabbing a transfer to the feature out of his heat race. “We were really fast, we just had some motor issues,” he says. “It seemed like we were dealing with one thing after another. The thing was smoking and carrying on.”
A surge into the top ten, ended with a twelfth place finish. “We were up to ninth at one time and coming, we just had issues,” says Wayne. “We actually caught on fire for a while there. It just blew oil out and it was burning. I wasn’t going to stop and we were able to come home twelfth.”
All in all, it was a solid weekend. “It was a decent run on both ends,” says Wayne. “We just had the motor issues in New York. To run twelfth and have that happening…that wasn’t disappointing at all.”
Wayne is anxious to get back to Lonestar Speedway, the place where he recorded ASCS win #1. “I haven’t been there since they changed the configuration,” he says. “We won our very first ASCS race there back in 1993. I hated that they made it smaller, because I liked the big half-mile, but we are really excited about getting down there and checking it out.”
Buy Your Outlaw Wings from Wayne
Wayne is an Outlaw Wings dealer located in the Knoxville, Iowa area. Wayne credits the new Outlaw top wing for his 2009 wins at Little Rock and Cowtown. Contact Wayne for your Outlaw Wing, as he has some special Holiday deals going! Outlaw Wings – “When Downforce Matters”!
Wayne’s Website
To learn more about Wayne and the team, log on to www.WayneJohnsonRacing.com!
Got a question for Wayne? Each week, Wayne will answer your questions about “Tech Tips”, or anything that’s on your mind. If you ever wondered what a part on a sprint car is all about, send an e-mail to us at sprntcar@iowatelecom.net, and we may answer it in this section! Put "? for Wayne" in your subject line. He’ll try to keep it clean if you do!
Wayne’s World
Jim Lalor asks: Do you remember any promotional gimmicks that were around when you were growing up in Oklahoma City or even when you were racing?
Wayne answers: The racing was amusing enough a lot of times in Oklahoma City. There was always something going on, but I don’t remember anything I would call a gimmick. I remember the Joey Chitwood Thrill Show coming every year. Growing up, Bud Carson was the promoter, and he was one of the last real promoters who promoted to the fans.
Got a question for Wayne? Each week, Wayne will answer your questions about “Tech Tips”, or anything that’s on your mind. If you ever wondered what a part on a sprint car is all about, send an e-mail to us at sprntcar@iowatelecom.net, and we may answer it in this section! Put "? for Wayne" in your subject line. He’ll try to keep it clean if you do!
Wayne’s Fast Facts
Wayne is sixth on the all-time ASCS National Series win list with 31 victories. That includes three he won this year (Cottage Grove and two at Placerville).
“Wednesday’s with Wayne”
“Wednesday’s With Wayne” is an up close look at the past, present and future of colorful and talented sprint car driver Wayne Johnson. You’ll never know what to expect next with Wayne, so don’t miss us on Wednesdays!
To receive "Wednesday’s with Wayne", send an e-mail to sprntcar@iowatelecom.net with "Wayne" in the subject line.
*Wayne races at Valley Speedway (IBRACN Photos)