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Wednesdays with Wayne – Tire Wranglin' and Winnin'!
(Bill W) June 11, 2008 – Wayne Johnson made it two wins in a row driving the Mike and Tim Hammers/Robbie Forbes #94 last Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. Wayne's fifth career 360 win and tenth overall at the historic ½ mile followed up a triumph nine days prior at the Camden Speedway in Tennessee. A busy week lies ahead in the 360, with dates at US36 Raceway on Friday, Knoxville on Saturday and Tuesday's "Ollie's Outlet" 360 NASCAR Challenge Round #1 at the Sharon Speedway in Ohio.
The word 'domination' best describes Wayne's feature run on Saturday. In the heat race, he finished second behind Natalie Sather. "She has come a long way," he says of Natalie. "I tried, but I couldn't catch her. She was smooth. She didn't make any mistakes during that race."
The two drivers started on the front row together in the main event, but this win belonged to the Knoxville veteran. He took off from the start, and won the non-stop 15-lapper by 9.5 seconds over second place Matt Moro. "Obviously, I didn't know I was that far ahead, but we slowed a couple times in traffic," says Wayne. "One time, I was going into a corner about 10 car lengths behind a lapped car, and I was on him quick. I thought I was going to hit him, and had to lock the brakes up and get sideways to avoid him. That was really the only time I had a close call."
Did he worry about being caught when slowed by traffic? "I really wasn't panicking," he relates. "I was just riding around there comfortable…it was almost like driving down the interstate. I think I could have run it even harder if I wanted to. It is slower than the 410 we've been running at Knoxville, so you feel like you have more time to do everything."
A humorous string of events happened relating to the winning right rear tire. "One funny thing about Saturday, was winning the race on a 'stolen' tire," explains Wayne. "We needed a used tire, because we weren't buying a new one for $1200 to win. I told Chirp (Jeremy Rankin) to go find a used tire, so he went over to (410 driver) Bronson Maeschen's pit and asked (crew chief) Glenn Freeland for one. They were changing a rear-end, so Glenn told Chirp to take that one over there (pointing) and they'd take $40 for it. It was still on a wheel, so Chirp told him, he'd break it down and bring the wheel back. Chirp breaks it down, mounts it and puts it on the car. While I was rolling on the track, Chirp brought the wheel back. Ended up, it didn't belong to Maeschen, it was the guy's tire that was parked next to him! So Chirp had to buy one of Glenn's other tires to give to the guy to pay him back!"
The combination of car and motor are clicking right now. "The Maxim chassis/Fisher Engine combination is really going well right now," says Wayne. "We're looking for more good things this week. We'd like to try some different things at Knoxville to get ready for the 20th (for the American Sprint Cars on Tour race) and the 360 Nationals."
A busy week is planned. On Friday, the Bud Shootout at the US36 Raceway west of Cameron, Missouri pays $2,000 to win. On Saturday, Wayne will run the 360 at Knoxville. On Tuesday, the team will make the long haul to Sharon Speedway near Hartford, Ohio to compete in the "Ollie's Outlet" 360 Challenge. The race is round #1 of 3 in an event paying $50,000 to any driver than can win two of three races. The other tracks involved include Eldora Speedway (OH) and Williams Grove Speedway (PA). In addition to several NASCAR stars competing, a handful of World of Outlaws competitors are expected as well. "We'd like to show them all how it is done," says Wayne. "We'll give it our best shot!"
Wayne on Knoxville Raceway Weekly
Wayne is a guest on this week's Knoxville Raceway Weekly television show co-hosted by Jeff Grummer and Ricky Logan. The show can be seen statewide in Iowa on the Mediacom Channel 22 Thursday at 9:30 p.m., Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 11 a.m.
A brief preview: "After I heard that Ricky is not cutting his hair until he wins, I gave him the winner's hat," says Wayne. "He told me he missed starting on the pole of the WoO heat by .04 of a second. I told him his hair must have gotten in his eyes!"
T-shirts and Hats
Separate shirts for the H&H #94 and FattFro #14AJ are now available at the trailer. Keep an eye on www.RacingThreads.com in the near future or visit the trailer to get your Wayne Johnson merchandise.
Wayne's Website
To learn more about Wayne and the team, log on to www.WayneJohnsonRacing.com!
Wayne's World
Wylie Nelson from Fort Dodge, IA asks: Last week you answered a question about your youngest daughter (probably has the genetic code for "Gotta Race" . Does that run the other way? Anybody on your side of the family ever race jalopies, supers or sprints?
Wayne answers: My dad, my mother, and both my brothers raced. My dad (Henry) had raced for as long as I can remember. Junkers, 100 inch cars, stock cars, jalopies, whatever. My dad never had much, just enough to compete. We built most of our own stuff. He quit pretty young, because my brothers (Mike and Bud) were starting, and I only got to see him race a few times really. My brothers raced for six or seven years before I ever got started. My brother Mike was probably one of the best that I've ever seen. He didn't want to do it for a living, so it was a hobby to him. In the late '80s, there was a year at Oklahoma City where, between the three of us brothers, we won nine of the nineteen features they had. When I was a kid, we went to Goldsby Speedway in Goldsby, Oklahoma, and they had a powder puff race my mom was in. Mom led the whole race and coming for the checkers spun out! She still ran second though.
On Sunday, we would sit around for dinner and we brothers would brag about who did the best. We weren't giving each other any secrets, because we all wanted to win on Friday night! In August of 1996, they had practice every night during the fair there in Oklahoma City. I convinced my dad to get in the sprint car. He had never driven one. He actually turned some pretty damn good laps. He ended up passing away that December, so it was pretty cool for me to have been able to see that. I started racing for a living the next year. He loved the salvage business, and had always told me "If you find something that you love to do, and you can make money, you better do it." That's what I decided to do. I wasn't liking the business side of things, so that's what I did. I've been broke ever since!
Got a question for Wayne? Send it to us at [email protected], 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 won the Bud Shootout at US36 Raceway near Cameron, Missouri on June 6, 2003. He registered second quick behind Terry McCarl, who turned the first sub-ten second lap in the history of the high-banked 3/8 mile (9.99). Wayne held off the rest of the field in the feature, driving the Vielhauer #12x. Jesse Hockett was second, followed by Colin Northway, Jesse Giannetto, Skip Jackson and Brian Brown.
"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 [email protected] with "Wayne" in the subject line.
Wayne would like to thank H&H Enterprises, Pearson Farms, R&A Farms, FattFro, Stone Mountain Access, Cerma Advanced Lubrication Technology (www.cermastore.com), www.RacingThreads.com, CnB Mushroom Farms, Maxim Chassis, ARP Wings, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld and ButlerBuiltfor all their help!
Wayne got his 5th 360 win 10th overall at Knoxville on Saturday (Conrad Nelson Photo)
Bill W Media
Monroe, IA USA
[email protected]
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