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Wednesdays with Wayne – All Knotted Up Heading to Speedweek!
(Bill W) July 11, 2007 – What has been a close race for the $50,000 to win American Sprint Cars on Tour 360 series all season long, just got a lot closer. Wayne Johnson and Gary Wright are tied at the top, with Jason Johnson just three points behind. Wayne joins the others heading into ASCS Speedweek, which gets underway Saturday.
A week ago Tuesday, ASCoT towed in to the Missouri State Fair Speedway in Sedalia and was joined by the Winged Outlaw Warriors. A second place run in the fourth heat put Wayne outside row five for the feature event. Despite charging to fourth, he was not overly pleased with the car's performance. "We hurt a motor there in the feature at Sedalia. We were just decent, that's all. We missed the set-up a bit with the car, and we were just fair," he says.
On the Fourth of July, the Daniel McMillin Memorial at Double X Speedway near California, Missouri hosted the ASCoT/WOW contingent. "I thought it was a crappy track at first," says Wayne. "It was wet and built a big cushion. But come feature time, it blew off and it was a racy little place! There was lots of passing. The fans have to enjoy that place, because it's exciting to watch!"
Moving from seventh to fourth in his heat race, barely got Wayne into the main event, where he would start inside row eight. "We had a great racecar there at Double X. We started back in 15th and made it up to second! I passed Randy Martin (for second), and I think that's when he got excited and got his elbows up! He was easy to pass, but once he passed me back, he was tough!"
Once by Martin, who was racing on his hometown track, Wayne set his sights on Jason Johnson, who was leading. "Once we got through there we really shot up to the front. We were getting ready to go by Jason on the last lap too. The car was perfect. One more lap and we would have had him!" The good finish paired with a tough night for Wright, put Wayne in first place in the season standings heading into the Lakeside Speedway near Kansas City on Saturday.
Starting seventh, Wayne was all over Wright in lapped traffic, and passed him for the lead. He and others felt that a lap had been completed before a lapped car got upside down bringing the red flag. "We raced all the way back around the flagstand," says Wayne. "I went around one and two and back down the backstraight. Going into three, a lapped car right in front of me hit the fence. His nerf bar landed in the cage with me, that's how close I was. They ended up saying I never led a lap. I was not happy!"
With blood pressure high, Wayne took back to the track. "They put me back to third, and on the restart we ran around there chasing Gary Wright. I ran the bottom, and there was a drain down there. It was a concrete drain on the bottom of the racetrack. I was running the left side of the car down there and caught it with the left side. It turned me around, dug the right rear in and flipped me over. I was just trying to do too much, I think, because I was pissed off at the scoring. If I could have calmed down, I probably would have been fine."
Despite the tumble, Wayne was able to rejoin the field, although he was a bit crippled. "We went back in the work area, and Jeremy (Rankin) put a wing on it, but without a hydraulic wing valve on it. The front wing was torn off, and the Jacob's ladder was bent. All the power steering fluid leaked out without the wing valve, so I ran the last seven or eight laps without power steering."
The scoring, which is done by track officials, left Wayne scratching his head afterwards and added to some building frustrations. "I'm not one to whine, but everyone in the stands was coming down and asking, 'What was that about?' All I could say was, 'I have no idea.'" The race went to Wright, who along with Jason Johnson, pulled beside Wayne in the ASCoT standings.
A Look Ahead
Wayne is looking forward to ASCS Speedweek, which begins this Saturday. Here's the schedule:
July 14 – I-30 Speedway, Little Rock, AR
July 16 – Creek County Speedway, Sapulpa, OK
July 19 – Devil's Bowl Speedway, Mesquite, TX
July 20 – State Fair Speedway, Oklahoma City, OK
July 21 – Lawton Speedway, Lawton, OK
T-shirts
T-shirts can now be ordered at www.Racingthreads.com and Wayne's trailer. Wayne would like to thank Racingthreads.com and FattFro for all of their help with this!
Wayne's Website Is Up!
Visit Wayne's new website at www.WayneJohnsonRacing.com! Check back often for updates, as it is a work in progress!
Wayne's World
Darrell from Little Rock, AR asks: Do you like Speedweek or dread it?
Wayne answers: I look forward to it, I look forward to going home running those tracks I've run a lot throughout the years of my career. I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends, but I'm not looking forward to racing with this sanctioning body because of all the politics I feel are going on right now.
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 has four career victories during ASCS Speedweek. He won at the Devil's Bowl Speedway twice (June 18 of 1996 and 1997), Creek County Speedway (June 16, 1996) and the Salina Highbanks (July 17, 2001).
"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, www.RacingThreads.com, CnB Mushroom Farms, Eagle Chassis, Fast Wings, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld and ButlerBuiltfor all their help!
Wayne races with Eric Schrock at Double X 7-4-07 (ASCS)
Bill W MediaMonroe, IA USA[email protected]
If this post isn't results, stories or something c
constructive, it isn't me!
@BillWMedia
www.OpenWheel101.com
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