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Wednesdays with Wayne – Mr. Sprint Car!
(Bill W) August 15, 2007 – Consistency made Wayne Johnson Southern Iowa Speedweek's "Mr. Sprint Car" for 2007. Headlining this week, was the Knoxville Nationals, where Wayne qualified for his fifth Nationals Championship main event in a row. Only Donny Schatz, Steve Kinser, Terry McCarl, Danny Lasoski and Shane Stewart can say the same.
Wayne had planned on qualifying on Thursday night in the FattFro #14AJ, and he still did, though Thursday became the first night of the Nationals after Wednesday's program was a wash. Registering the 18th quick time of the night, the Knoxville, Iowa driver lined up seventh for the third heat behind Indiana's Neil Shepherd, who got loose at the drop of the green. "I thought we were going to wreck there," says Wayne. "(Shepherd) was all over the place coming down the straightaway, and I knew that we had to get going. We were lucky we didn't break anything on that deal, to be honest."
Shepherd came to a stop and the caution was thrown with a lap in the books. Wayne had moved into fifth for the restart. He dodged another bullet, when the third place car of Josh Higday lost the left side panel on his sprinter. The panel lodged on the hood of Travis Cram, who lined up behind Wayne for the restart. Once the race went green again, Wayne stuck the #14AJ to the low side and motored past Robert Ballou and Jesse Hockett and trailed the leader, Randy Martin, to the checkers. The run put him outside of row two for the 20-lap feature.
Wayne trailed front row starter, Brooke Tatnell in the early stages, with Jeff Shepard behind him. As Tatnell pulled away, the battle for second with Shepard was on. "We swapped positions a couple different times," says Wayne. "I don't know what the Hell I was doing. I passed him on the bottom, went to the top and gave him the bottom back, passed him back again, and then he went back by me on the bottom again. I came back by him and we were coming up on some lapped traffic. I went to the top away from the traffic, and he went with the lapped traffic and drove right back by me. I told someone that night, 'We had the best racecar that night, just not the best driver.'"
Later in the race, Johnson's motor had issues, and Joey Saldana challenged him for third after a green, white, checker restart. "Actually the motor laid down. Butterflies were falling out of the motor. We got that run out of four, and blocked him (Saldana) on the low side to turn one. It's nothing he wouldn't have done to me. I thought the motor had blown up. The butterflies were all goofy and jammed up and that's why it sounded so bad. Actually if the screws would have fallen out, it would have blown up a piston, so we got lucky there."
The solid finish landed Wayne eighth in total points going into Saturday afternoon's A Scramble. He finished a disappointing sixth after starting third. "We took too much stagger out for that deal and it cost us some spots. After we were done Saturday afternoon, I went home and took a nap. I had been racing for a lot of nights at that point."
Saturday night's main event saw Wayne refreshed and starting inside row five of the 30-lap Nationals Championship. He took off to a solid start. "It felt really good at first, but after the yellow, it wasn't as good," he says. "We found out later, that the left rear bleeder was gone and the tire was going flat. It would go down and sit on the left rear, but it wouldn't dig, because there wasn't any air in it. So during the red, we fixed it and the car went back to driving like it was earlier in the race." The lap fourteen red flag for Jason Martin, saw Wayne restart twelfth. A late battle saw Wayne get by Danny Lasoski, and finish behind Shepard in 11th. The solid showing was a great capper to the week.
"I'm satisfied," says Wayne. "How many people can say they've been in that thing five years in a row? Everyone that was around me in the feature, races a lot more than I do…and with the same team. I've been jumping between the 360 and 410 quite a bit this year. I haven't done that well with the 410 at Knoxville this year, but everything seemed to click. I think it has a lot to do with confidence. We had a great weekend the week before too. It's weird. I think the first one is hard to make, but once you make that one, it seems to go a little smoother."
Mr. Sprint Car
The strong showing in both the 360 Nationals and 410 Nationals spearheaded Wayne to the Southern Iowa Speedweek "Mr. Sprint Car" title. "That was awesome," he says. "We had a good week, running second in the 360 Nationals and a fourth in the Brodix Tournament of Champions the weekend before the Nationals. There's not much to complain about. I'd like to have done a little better…I'd like to have won them all, but all in all the racecar and the driver made some money, so everything's good."
This Weekend
Wayne will run the FattFro #14AJ with the Interstate Racing Association this weekend at Wilmot Speedway in Wilmot, Wisconsin on Friday, and at the Langlade County Speedway in Antigo, Wisconsin on Saturday.
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 World
Mark Johnson in Des Moines, IA asks: You've qualified for five straight Nationals now. What have been the keys to your runs: qualifying, heats, features?
Wayne answers: Moving to Knoxville has helped me more than anything. A lot of people are hyped up because they're coming to the Nationals, but it's just a few blocks from my house, so I consider it just another race. We've also been lucky to get a good draw and everything has to go your way. In the five years, we've always qualified for the feature through our heat on qualifying nights too. The first year I made it, holding off Steve Kinser for six restarts really gave me a lot of confidence that I could do it too.
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 should have confidence heading into the IRA races this weekend. His only career trips to Antigo came last year in August when he swept a two-day show there. He also won in World of Outlaws Gumout action in 2002 at Wilmot, besting Joe Roe, Jason Sides, Shane Stewart and Craig Keel.
"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, Cerma Technology, www.RacingThreads.com, CnB Mushroom Farms, Eagle Chassis, Fast Wings, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld and ButlerBuiltfor all their help!
Wayne showers Jeff Shepard in Victory Lane on Thursday night (Skinner Photos)
Bill W MediaMonroe, IA USA[email protected]
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