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Wednesdays with Wayne – Victory in Columbus!
(Bill W) November 14, 2007 – Wayne Johnson capped off an outstanding year with another feature win and a hard-charging run from the back last weekend at the Columbus Speedway in Columbus, Mississippi. The win was his 11th in 64 main events this season, and capped off a fine year driving the Tim and Mike Hammers/Robbie Forbes #94 360 sprinter.
Though the USCS "Battle at the Bullring" was a two-night affair, only qualifying events were held on Friday night. Despite coming out later in the order, he qualified second and was able to win his heat. "We went out late (in qualifying), and the track was probably too heavy, but we didn't run a lot that night on it anyway," says Wayne.
Saturday saw the Knoxville, Iowa driver line up outside row one of the dash alongside pole-sitter Tim Crawley. "The first start was perfect, but they (officials) called it back. They said I went too early. I let (Crawley) get the jump on me the second time and I followed him the rest of the way." The second place run put him outside row one for the first of two feature events. A winner in both would take home $10,000.
"We were running well in the (first) feature," says Wayne. "We ran Crawley down in 13 or 14 laps. The track was a lot of fun on Saturday. We could put it anywhere. It got slick, had a curb around the top, and had a good bottom. It was really fun. It reminded me a lot of LaSalle (IL)." The winning pass came on lap 14, and it was clear sailing from there as the #94 was clearly the class of the field. "There was a bit of a shallow field, so there was a ton of traffic to run through. It was fun!"
The second feature was inverted with Wayne starting on the tail outside of row ten. He put on a furious charge, but a lack of yellows contributed to him just coming up short at the end. "We were challenging Terry Gray for second coming off the corner late (with three laps to go). I slipped and jumped the cushion on one end, and he got back by me. Actually, we about wrecked. That got me all screwed up, and we ended up fourth. I thought we had a shot at the leader, because I was the only one running the cushion. The rest of them were running the bottom."
Despite not grabbing the second win, Wayne saw the weekend as a success and a good way to end 2007. "We were good all weekend. I can't complain…a win and charging from 20th to 2nd at one point isn't bad. We were as good in the #94 on Saturday as we were all year."
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 World
Tom from Wisconsin asks: I was at LaSalle, Illinois when you ran the feature with little or no brakes (IRA show on Sept. 22). You said that you were lucky to have tons of gear in the car to help brake it. I am not a sprint car setup guru but I sure as hell would not put tons of gear in when the track was glassy like LaSalle. Did you do this due to today's big breathing motors with the large injectors and their noted lack of response if you drop off the rpm's? I would think that you would just have excessive tire spin. This comes from a team who is still running a -12 headed motor.
Wayne answers: The gear is controlled a lot by the guy with the gas pedal. We do run a lot more gear with the bigger injection than we did with the 12 headed motor, but that race all boiled down to actually not having as much gear as Forbrook (#5) did. I know he had more than us, because I talked to him. The gear will definitely slow the car down. I'm glad we did have that gear or it wouldn't have slowed down.
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's win at Columbus Speedway marked the fifth time this season he has won while racing on the track for the first time. The others were the Malden Speedway in Malden, MO (4/20), Susquehanna Speedway Park in Newberrytown, PA (5/20), Clay Hill Motorsports near Atwood, TN (5/28) and North Central Speedway near Brainerd, MN (6/20)! Wayne won the second night of a two-night show the first time he raced at North Florida Speedway near Lake City, FL (2/3) as well!
"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, Cerma Technology (www.cermatechnology.com), www.RacingThreads.com, CnB Mushroom Farms, Eagle Chassis, Fast Wings, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld and ButlerBuiltfor all their help!
Wayne in Victory Lane at Columbus Speedway (USCS)
Bill W MediaMonroe, IAUSA[email protected]
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