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Wednesdays with Wayne – Into the Golden Triangle!
(Bill W) February 27, 2008 – Sprint car driver Wayne Johnson is itching to get racing again after three weeks off. He'll get his chance this weekend as he has left the snow of Iowa to go for a Gulf Coast Nationals title to be contested over two tracks in Southeast Texas. $2,000 will be on the line in Beaumont, while the finale in Houston will pay $3,000 to win.
The Golden Triangle Raceway Park is on tap for Friday night. The ¼ mile oval near Beaumont, Texas has previously operated as Motorama Speedway, Golden Triangle Motor Speedway, Speedway 90, Beaumont Tri-plex and Golden Triangle Speedway. Wayne's only other visit to the track came on April 5, 2002. The race Memorialized a pair of his racing friends, John Bankston and Ronald Laney. Both drivers hailed from the Gulf Coast area in Southeast Texas.
Wayne remembers, "We were leading that thing with a few laps to go (from row four) and we lost the left rear tire!" Zach Chappell took advantage of Wayne's misfortune by winning. Wayne officially fell to ninth after losing his tire.
The drivers will make the short trip over to Houston Raceway Park for Saturday's big event on the 3/8 mile. Wayne's last trip to the track east of Baytown, Texas was a fruitful one, as he finished 4th and 2nd in a two-night stop during his ASCS National Championship run in 2000. The track Wayne will see Saturday will not be familiar. "It will be a different track than what we saw there in 2000," he says. "It's been reconfigured since then. It used to be bigger, like a 4/10, so it's like going to a new track for us."
After the layoff, Wayne is anxious to get back in the seat of the Mike and Tim Hammers/Robbie Forbes #94 sprinter wrenched by Jeremy Rankin. "I'm pretty excited to get going!" he says. "We've changed a few more things with the car. Scott Benic is doing our shocks now…we're going with AFCO. These next two weeks will get us familiarized with the new shocks before we head back for the American Sprint Cars on Tour races."
"We Beat the Best of the Best With a Whole Lot Less!"
Wayne sat in with the boys from Dirt Nation on Monday night, and this quote about his win at Volusia as well as many others entertained the listeners. If you'd like to listen to the entire (approximately 25 minutes) interview, just log on to this link:
http://dirtnation.net/2008/02/25/wayne-johnson-ascs-360-sprint-cars/
Keep Voting for Wayne!
Wayne's win in February at Volusia against the best in the business gave him a unique opportunity to receive $12,000 in the Alltel Dirt Car All Star Challenge. Fans will choose one Volusia winner as their All Star driver. The winning vote getter will receive $12,000! You are allowed to vote once per day through March 16, so get online and vote at www.AlltelAllStar.com!
Wayne's popular win has put him on top of the voting polls to this point, but he could definitely use your vote every day, because the guys who drive the fendered cars are coming on strong! "It would be pretty cool to win that deal…$12,000 would be huge for a team like ours," he says. "I want to thank my wife Erin, and my mother and father-in-law, they've been going all out to the get the word out about this! The gap is narrowing, so we need the sprint car people to keep voting every day!"
Up Next
Friday and Saturday March 7 and 8 will find the team in USCS competition at Greenville Speedway in the owners' home state of Mississippi.
The ASCoT will kick back into action at the Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas on March 14 and 15, before heading back to Wayne's old stomping grounds, the State Fair Speedway in Oklahoma City March 21 and 22.
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
To learn more about Wayne and the team, log on to www.WayneJohnsonRacing.com!
Wayne's World
Vance from Des Moines asks: Does knowing the ins and outs of a sprint car give you any advantages in working on your street vehicles?
Wayne answers: It does somewhat, but with the newer vehicles anymore, it's way too complicated. You need computers and everything else to work on them, so probably not a whole lot. When I was a teenager, we could work on them because they had carburetors.
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
This weekend won't be an official trip to two new tracks, but it will feel that way. Don't expect him to miss a beat. In 2007, Wayne won at five racetracks he had never seen before: Malden Speedway, Malden, Missouri (4/20), Susquehanna Speedway Park, Newberrytown, Pennsylvania (5/20), Clayhill Motorsports, Atwood, Tennessee (5/28), North Central Speedway, Brainerd, Minnesota (6/20) and Columbus Speedway, Columbus, Mississippi (11/10).
"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, Stone Mountain Access, Cerma Technology (www.cermatechnology.com), www.RacingThreads.com, CnB Mushroom Farms, Maxim Chassis, ARP Wings, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld and ButlerBuiltfor all their help!
Wayne racing at Volusia Speedway (FL) (John's Racing Photos)
Bill W MediaMonroe, IAUSA[email protected]
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