(Photo by Collin Markle Photography)
Inside Line Promotions – TULARE, Calif. (May 18, 2015) – The bad luck theme reemerged for Chase Johnson on Saturday at Thunderbowl Raceway.
Johnson drove the Shawn and Cyndi Thomas owned sprint car into the top 10 early in the Chris and Brian Faria Memorial main event with the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series before being caught up in a wreck.
“I just keep saying it’s going to end someday,” Johnson said. “It hasn’t hurt our drive at all. We’ve had so much bad luck we want to do well to prove ourselves. It’s making us better and more prepared for everything.”
The event began with Johnson qualifying 12th quickest, which put him on the pole of a heat race.
“It went well in qualifying,” he said. “The car was a little bit of a handful, but it was really fast. It’s an improvement from what we’ve done in the past.
“In the heat race the bottom really wasn’t the best place to be. (Jonathan) Allard got around us on the start. We ran second for a little bit and then Kyle Hirst got around me. There was a restart and I started on the inside again and the outside car got by me.”
Johnson ended with a fourth-place result to lock himself into the 12th starting position for the main event.
“The feature started well,” he said. “I found a line that nobody else found at that time. We were really fast and passing cars. I felt like we were going to get to the front pretty quickly. We made it up to eighth. A couple of laps after a restart I missed my marks in turn one and two and the car got away from me. I pulled it to a stop. A couple of cars missed me, but one car hit me and knocked the front end out. It wasn’t able to be fixed on the caution laps.”
Johnson was unable to restart the race following the incident on Lap 9. He was credited with a 19th-place result.
Johnson will take this weekend off before returning to action on May 30 at Petaluma Speedway in Petaluma, Calif., during a nonwing race in his family owned sprint car.
QUICK RESULTS –
May 16 – Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif. – Qualifying: 12; Heat race: 4 (1); Feature: 19 (12).
SEASON STATS –
14 races, 0 wins, 0 top fives, 1 top 10, 2 top 15s, 3 top 20s
UP NEXT –
May 30 at Petaluma Speedway in Petaluma, Calif.
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.ChaseJohnsonRacing.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChaseJohnson24
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Chase.Johnson.Racing1
APPAREL –
Johnson has new red, black or gray t-shirts and hoodies for sale at his race trailer at every race he competes in this season. T-shirts are $20 each and hoodies are $35 apiece.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Newman Freeman Racing
During the 1976 auto racing season, actor Paul Newman became interested in forming a professional auto racing team and contacted Bill Freeman from Santa Barbara. Freeman is credited as the man who introduced Newman to professional auto racing management and their company specialized in Can-Am, Indy Cars and other high performance racing automobiles.
“The reason Paul Newman got into racing was because of a guy named Bill Freeman,” Johnson said. “Bill hasn’t really been involved in racing since Paul’s death so we really appreciate his support and partnership.”
Johnson would also like to thank Johnny Franklin’s Mufflers, PitStopUSA.com, Napa Auto Parts, Shifty Illusions, Flowmaster, Don’s Truck Repair, VSR, Fast Lube Plus, K&N Filters, Oroville Cycle, I-Wear Graphix, Driven Raceway, Nor-Cal Transmission, Justin Henry Racing and Chevron Pro-Gas for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
- Shawn Miller on May 18, 2015
- Article Date: 5/18/2015 by Inside Line Promotions