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Wednesdays with Wayne – Fresh and Ready to Go!
(Bill W) July 30, 2008 – After looking for consistency between his 360 and 410 cars, and putting a new car together for last Saturday night's 410 race at Knoxville Raceway, a lackluster qualifying effort looked bad on the surface. A minor problem was detected and resolved, and sprint car driver Wayne Johnson spent the rest of the night as one of the fastest cars assembled at the famous half-mile oval. Now attention turns toward the biggest two weeks of the season, the 360 and 410 Nationals at Knoxville!
A 16th quick effort was not what Wayne was looking for in preparation for the upcoming Knoxville Nationals, but the gremlin was remedied. "We had a secondary fuel line stick, so the car shook all the way around," he says. "That killed us in qualifying, but we got it fixed. We used our Nationals motor, and we were going to take it out for this week, but now we're going to keep it in on Saturday and try to get a good qualifying lap in. Otherwise, we'll go to 'Old Lucy' who qualifies for us every year."
Wayne and crew chief Jeremy Rankin spent much of last week assembling three new cars. The team is now utilizing Maxim Chassis and Fisher Motors in both the FattFro #14AJ 410 and the Mike and Tim Hammers/Robbie Forbes #94 360. The heat race went well on Saturday with a second place finish. "We're happy with the whole new package," says Wayne. "We just need some seat time in the 410 now."
Because of the time trial effort, Wayne was relegated to starting outside of row seven for the feature. He quickly moved forward utilizing the bottom of turns one and two and the high side of three and four. "We were running really well," he says. "I haven't felt that good all year in the 410. I gained a bunch of ground early running the bottom of one and two."
A restart with five laps to go, saw Wayne already in the top five and poised to challenge the leaders. With two to go, another slowdown and restart saw Wayne make a mistake by following the fourth place machine of Landis when the green flag fell. "I followed Landis on the bottom and I shouldn't have. It was nobody's fault but my own. The restart before, he had slid from the bottom to the top, so I didn't think he could stick the bottom. The last restart, he kind of bogged down where I was running on the bottom, and that got me out in the middle and that let (Brian) Brown get a run outside of the both of us, and (Don) Droud Jr. did too."
The seventh place finish wasn't bad, but obviously, it was a disappointment after reaching the leaders. Wayne remains optimistic heading into this Saturday's return engagement with the 410. "We really haven't devoted the time we would have liked to the 410 team," he says. "We've really evaluated it the last few weeks, and gone over some of the problems we've had. We'll run Saturday and then run Oskaloosa (Front Row Challenge) on Monday. We need some more seat time with the new car before the Nationals."
There's also business to take care of in the 360. The 2000 360 Nationals champion will have fresh power for this year's event as he begins qualifying on Friday. "Both of our 360 Fisher motors are arriving from Ohio today," says Wayne. That could be bad news for those competitors who have seen Wayne in action this year at Knoxville. He'll try to pick up the $5,000 to win BRODIX Tournament of Champions on Sunday as well, making it five races in four nights this week!
Wayne the Pit Reporter
Wayne will be the pit reporter for Thursday night's broadcast from Knoxville on www.HoseheadsRadio.com! He'll join Bill W and Brian Brown who will be in the booth. The broadcast gets underway at 7:30 p.m. CST! Don't tell the FCC!
T-shirts and Hats
Separate shirts for the H&H #94 and FattFro #14AJ are now available at the trailer.
Wayne's Website
To learn more about Wayne and the team, log on to www.WayneJohnsonRacing.com!
Wayne's World
Maria in Claremore, OK asks: Wayne, talk about what combinations you have going for the 410 and 360 Nationals with your cars. How do you like your chances?
Wayne answers: Now everything is exactly the same with Maxim chassis, AFCO shocks, Fisher Motors and ARP Wings on the 360 and 410 cars. We built three of them last week. I would feel disappointed if we didn't win the 360 Nationals to be honest with you. We've been good at Knoxville lately, and no one has beat us there other than when we broke. As bad as we've been in the 410 this year, I wouldn't have predicted us in the show on Saturday. After feeling the car last Saturday, I think we've got a good chance. I don't know if we can win, but I may feel different about that after this week. It will boil down to qualifying. We'll see how we do this week, and if we can get in the show, I feel we have a good shot at the top ten, and if everything goes right a top five.
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 has competed in eight 360 Nationals in six different cars (Sparks 91 in '96, Archer 1A in '98, Threatt 29 in '00-'02, Vielhauer 12x in '03, FattFro 14AJ in '04, Hammers 94 in '07). He has won three heat events, two preliminary A mains ('01 & '02), has four prelim top 5's, has qualified for six championship finales including five in a row ('00-'04), has registered four top fives in finales (2nd on the all-time list) and, of course, was the 2000 champion in the Fred & Jo Threatt #29.
"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 Advanced Lubrication Technology (www.cermastore.com), www.RacingThreads.com, CnB Mushroom Farms, Maxim Chassis, ARP Wings, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld and ButlerBuiltfor all their help!
Wayne at Knoxville last Saturday (Conrad Nelson Photo)
Bill W MediaMonroe, IA USA[email protected]
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