(Bill W) August 12, 2009 – Seven is a lucky number and that’s what Wayne Johnson is aiming for this week with the 49th Annual Knoxville Nationals kicking off for him on Thursday. He’ll be attempting to qualify for his seventh consecutive main event start on Saturday night. Only Donny Schatz, Steve Kinser, Danny Lasoski, Terry McCarl and Shane Stewart have also qualified those years. Last weekend, he finished second in the 360 Nationals, giving him some needed momentum heading in.
Wayne was able to secure a Don Ott motor for the 360 Nationals with the help of Jesse Hockett. He qualified 12th in his Thursday qualifying night. “For never running the motor before, it was decent,” he says. “I felt pretty good about it. We didn’t have the tune-up quite right at that point, but we got better. I’d like to thank Jesse for the use of it.”
He raced by Austin McCarl to win his heat race and collect 100 points. “We got better every time we hit the track,” he says. “We changed the high-speed and I knew we were good after winning the heat.”
Wayne dropped back after starting fifth in the feature, but stormed back into second, and was closing on leader, Shane Stewart. He roared by with eleven laps to go, and stuck the bottom the rest of the way for the prelim win. “We didn’t have the best start,” he admits. “Shane (Stewart) cleared some cars and I didn’t. We were a little tight. We were back in sixth or seventh at one time. The fuel load started burning off, and we got better and better. The car started to free up, and we really got to moving.”
Wayne ran a steady race in the $10,000 to win finale. He was in third, on a late restart, but the car slowed a bit. “We ran well until about four to go,” he says of his try at defending his 2008 win in the event. “I don’t know if we had an issue with a mag box going bad or valve springs or what. It wasn’t anything bad, it just slowed down a little bit.”
A late restart saw a battle with Billy Alley for second that took both out of contention. Though he ended up second, Wayne was disappointed in the exchange. “It is the biggest 360 race of the year,” he says. “Billy was doing everything he could do to stay in second. I was a little disappointed with the way he raced me there. It really took away my shot at (Terry) McCarl.”
The 410 side of things on Saturday led to some concerns. Qualifying 30th quick isn’t going to get it done this week. “We qualified terrible, and we’re having trouble getting a handle on that motor,” Wayne explains. “We went out in the heat, and we decided if we didn’t transfer we’d park it for the night.”
Wayne ran the Front Row Challenge in Oskaloosa on Monday. With an extremely solid 45-car field assembled, the FattFro #14AJ qualified 18th and won his heat going away. He pulled the car in come feature time as a precautionary measure after passing four cars to move into the top ten. “Rob Hart is on board for the week, and he made the motor run better,” says Wayne. “In the feature, it shook a little bit, so I kicked it out of gear. We haven’t found anything wrong with the motor. I wanted to be on the safe side, so we pulled it in to get ready for this week.”
Wayne ran Ron and Kathy Gorby’s #G1 at the Ultimate Challenge in Oskaloosa on Tuesday, but was caught up in someone else’s mess in the B, and suffered a DNF.
Wayne Johnson Apparel in Stock!
2009 Wayne Johnson apparel for both men and women is now in stock! T-shirts, long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, tank tops and hats are all in! To order, e-mail Wayne at WayneJohnsonRacing@yahoo.com or stop by the trailer at the track.
Wayne’s Website
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Wayne’s World
Bill W asks: What do you think of your chances of getting into your seventh straight Nationals?
Wayne answers: We’ve always got “Old Lucy”. We need to figure out what’s going on with this motor. Rob Hart is on with us for the week, and that will be good. I definitely think we can get it done if everything is running the way it should be.
Wayne’s Tech Tips
What is the horsepower difference between a 360 and 410?
Wayne: There are different compounds. On an abrasive track, you want to get a little harder compound on there, especially on the right side. You have to look at the air pressure, and change the spring rate just a little bit. You still want stagger. We usually aim for about a ½”.
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!
“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!
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Wayne would like to thank FattFro, Stone Mountain Access, Bral Restoration, Deberg Concrete, TNT Custom Golf Carts, www.RacingThreads.com, CnB Mushroom Farms, Maxim Chassis, ARP Wings, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld and ButlerBuilt for all their help!
- Bill Wright on Aug 12, 2009
- Article Date: 8/12/2009