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Wednesdays with Wayne – Another Podium Finish at Knoxville!
(Bill W) August 8, 2007 – A very successful weekend saw sprint car driver Wayne Johnson bounce back from an unfortunate incident on his qualifying night to nail down a podium finish in the 360 Nationals! There was 410 successes too, heading into the 47th Annual Knoxville Nationals.
Qualifying Friday night with 61 other 360s, Wayne timed in 4th quick in the Mike and Tim Hammers/Robbie Forbes #94. That put him outside row three of his heat. When second row starter, Chris Morgan, jumped the right rear of Jordan Martens slowing car entering turn one, fortune smiled on Wayne. "We got lucky when the cars wrecked out in front of me and we got to start on the front row," he says about going on to win the heat. "That made my job easy there. With the inversion, we started sixth in the feature. I was running up through there pretty good."
The 20-lap event saw Wayne move into third by lap twelve. An incident involving contact with Jonathan Allard changed the destiny of the weekend for Wayne. "I actually wasn't trying to slide past Allard," he explains of their contact in turn two. "I was trying to slide a lapped car, and I just got such a good run. I thought I gave him (Allard) plenty of room, and it just didn't work. We barely bumped, he got upside down, and that made me an asshole for a week! I apologized to him, that's all I could do. It hurt us too, we could have started up far enough on Saturday that we could have won the race."
Wayne headed to the work area for repairs. "It junked the nose wing and moved the front of the car over about ½ an inch," he says. He would return to salvage a 14th place finish, and grab enough points to start ninth in the big show, the 360 Nationals, on Saturday.
Early progress was slow for the Oklahoma transplant, but he was into fifth by lap ten on Saturday night. "Once the fuel got to burning off, the car got better," he says. "I was actually a little snug early. Once we all started running the bottom, we were all the same speed. On the last caution (lap 15), I just said, 'I'm not going to follow anybody'. I had tried the top earlier and wasn't making any ground. We got to working better and I just got around them late. The race track finally got a little wider with about ten laps to go there." He would track down the man who had led earlier, Gary Wright, and blew by him for second in the final corner behind winner, Shane Stewart.
On Sunday, the Brodix Tournament of Champions brought out some more of 360's best for a complete show. After registering the 13th quick time of the night in group qualifying, Wayne finished a respectable third in his heat, lining him up inside row eight of the feature.
Primarily using the high side, he steadily picked his way forward to fourth. Despite passing eleven cars, he felt he could have done better with a track more conducive to passing. "The track was really hard to pass on. It was narrow and one lane with a cushion," he says. Wayne was representing the American Sprint Cars on Tour, and they took the team title in the special event.
410 Preparations
Saturday also provided a chance at 410 double duties in the FattFro #14AJ sprinter. With a new bullet under the hood, things started a little flat. "Timing 23rd with a brand new Fisher was a little disappointing," says Wayne. "It didn't like the dirty (humid) air. We changed the nozzles and it got going." Get going it did, as he won from the pole of his heat race, setting him up with an 18th starting spot in the 20-lap feature.
Wayne quickly found a groove and shot forward steadily. "I think we found a line through (turns) one and two that no one else did," he says. "Everyone was running the bottom and throwing that stuff out in the middle. I was actually going through that, and catching the cushion coming out of two." The advance ended at sixth and gave Wayne some much-needed confidence heading into his qualifying night on Thursday at the big Nationals.
The key to the Nationals is scoring points every time you hit the track, but the most important laps may be the ones you spin by yourself. "The biggest deal is the two laps of qualifying, because if you do get a good qualifying lap and don't get out of the heat, at least you're in the front of the B," says Wayne. "We're going back to the old faithful (motor) that got us in the Nationals the last three years, and she runs plenty good!"
Make sure to stop down and say "Hello" to Wayne and the boys at the Nationals!
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
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 qualified for four consecutive Knoxville Nationals finals. Only Danny Lasoski, Donny Schatz, Steve Kinser, Shane Stewart and Terry McCarl can make the same claim. His finish in 2006 was eighth, his best ever.
"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.RacingThreads.com, CnB Mushroom Farms, Eagle Chassis, Fast Wings, Hoosier Tire, Simpson, Weld and ButlerBuiltfor all their help!
Wayne chats it up at Knoxville with 2-time 360 Nationals winner Garry Lee Maier and National Sprint Car Hall of Fame mechanic Kenny Woodruff
Bill W MediaMonroe, IA USA[email protected]
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