Bryan Hulbert – SAPULPA, Okla. (April 25, 2018) Picking up his second win of the 2018 season, Wayne Johnson was the class of the field Friday at Creek County Speedway with the American Bank of Oklahoma ASCS Red River Region presented by Smiley’s Racing Products. Keeping his momentum rolling into Saturday, a switch to the 410cid program ended with a fourth place finish at the famed Knoxville Raceway.
“I was really pleased. My car hasn’t felt that good at Creek in a long time once we got it figured out, and finishing like we did a Knoxville having not really run the 410 much this year, and not racing Knoxville as much as I used to, it just felt good," commented Johnson of the weekend.
Fighting the car to start off the night at Creek County Speedway, Wayne was still able to move forward from sixth to second in his Heat Race.
“I was tight. I mean really tight so we made wholesale changes before the feature. We changed all four bars, all four shocks, and it ended up being a rocket ship and actually, it was Slippy’s call on what we did,” commented Wayne. “When we came in from the Heat, he told me what he wanted to do, I contemplated it, and told him go for it.”
Good enough to make the redraw, Johnson drew the inside lane of the third row. Giving chase the first half of the race, traffic played into Wayne’s hands in the latter portion of Friday’s 25 lap affair. Chasing down Matt Covington, the No. 2c bolted to the lead on Lap 17 to go unchallenged the rest of the race.
“With what we did, the car felt way different so I was just kind of sorting it out the first little bit and moving around the track to see where I needed to be. I ended hitting the bottom a few times and figured out I was really good off turn-four and just sort of saved that for when I needed it, but I could go just about anywhere I wanted too. When I got to Matt, he was running the top going into three and I don’t think he knew I was there so I just kind of dove in there and was able to carry a little more speed than him. He was able to get under me a little bit going into one, and I squeezed him a little bit to stop his momentum, but it wasn’t anything he wouldn’t have done to me. It was just racing.”
Onward to Knoxville Raceway for the track’s 2018 season opener, Johnson timed in 11th quick with the 410cid division.
“I wasn’t very good qualifying. The air was reading 400-500 foot above sea level. I knew there were three guys practicing the night before that blew up engines, and we only had the one 410 with us so we were pretty conservative with the fuel so we didn’t hurt it. We ended up being so conservative that the engine shook during Hot Laps, and we just didn’t change it enough for Qualifying, which it was just too much high-speed pressure so it was detonating real bad on the big end.”
Getting the fuel figured out for his Heat Race, Wayne battled early for the lead before settling for third. The combined effort put Johnson 11th in the A-Feature where the first few laps were spent letting the pack sort out.
“Yeah, on the start of the A-Feature I just let everyone in front of me sort out. I didn’t have the best start anyway so I wasn’t going to push it and end up crashing, but once it started to clear out we got to easing our way through there. I was up to sixth and we ended up having two restarts there towards the end and I was able to pick off two more spots to get fourth, so not bad really considering how little we’ve really been able to run the 410 this year.”
Up next for Johnson and the TwoC Racing team is Paducah International Raceway on Friday, April 27 with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by Sawblade.com, followed by Williams Grove Speedway on Friday, May 4, and Selinsgrove Speedway on Saturday, May 5.
Longtime friend John Ivey will be joining the crew the next few races, and will be with Wayne and Slippy several times throughout the season.
“I’ve known John for a long time, and it’s always good to have him on the road with us. He was with us this past weekend and look forward to having him with us out in Kentucky and Pennsylvania.”
For continued updates on Wayne Johnson and TwoC Racing, you can follow them on Facebook (http://bit.ly/2o5zneX and http://bit.ly/2BsrIja) and Twitter (@wjr77x).
Recent Results:
4/20/2018 – Creek County Speedway (Sapulpa, Okla.)
Heat: 2nd [6th]
A-Feature: 1st [5th]
4/21/2018 – Knoxville Raceway (Knoxville, Iowa)
Qualifying: 11th [15.545 seconds]
Heat: 3rd [3rd]
A-Feature: 4th [11th]
Season To Date:
Races: 19; Wins: 2; Top-5: 8; Top-10: 13; Top-20: 16;
Up Next:
April 27, 2018 – Paducah International Raceway with Lucas Oil ASCS
May 4, 2018 – Williams Grove Speedway with Lucas Oil ASCS and URC
May 5, 2018 – Selinsgrove Speedway with Lucas Oil ASCS and URC
Follow Wayne Johnson and TwoC Racing
Facebook (Wayne): http://bit.ly/2o5zneX
Facebook (TwoC Racing): http://bit.ly/2BsrIja
Twitter (Wayne): @wjr77x
Twitter (TwoC Racing): @TwoCRacing
Online: https://www.myracepass.com/profile/?r=15868&rt=driver
Sponsors:
Wayne would like to give special thanks to his sponsors who have helped keep him behind the wheel and on the road: Todd Carlile, Outlaw Wings, The Oil Medics, Sebastian Sandblasting & Powder Coating, DHR Suspension, Chalk Stix, Rod End Supply, Astro Titanium, Schoenfeld Headers, Simpson, ButlerBuilt, Xtreme Accu-Tach, Weld Wheels, Kustom Sprint Car Supplies, Fisher Racing Engines, Speedway Graphics and Canyon Apparel.
- Bryan Hulbert on Apr 25, 2018
- Article Date: 4/25/2018