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Wednesdays with Wayne – Winning Wilmot!
(Bill W) August 22, 2007 – Wayne Johnson returned to Wilmot Speedway near Wilmot, Wisconsin last Friday night with a familiar result and another trip to Victory Lane. Johnson won in his first trip to Wilmot ever, with the World of Outlaws Gumout series in 2002.
A wet track greeted the Interstate Racing Association last Friday. "It was so wet in qualifying, that (Mike) Reinke spun out going down the back straightaway," says Wayne. Despite the wet conditions, Wayne outpaced the 40-car field by a large margin with a time of 13.375 seconds on the 3/8 mile. His time was nearly 4/10 of a second better than the second quick car of the night, driven by John Haeni.
Wayne joked about the wet conditions. "When we paid the tear-off bill, we ended up losing money!" The heat race went well as he cruised into second behind Scotty Neitzel by lap four. That is where he would finish. "We were just dodging bullets in the heat race," he says.
Wayne is superstitious, and doesn't draw for himself. Being the quick qualifier of the night meant a draw for the feature invert. "It was my turn to draw…I don't draw…and Chirpy (Crew Chief Jeremy Rankin) was nowhere to be found," he says. "So I made the Supershox guy draw it." The tactic paid off, as the best case scenario came to fruition with a feature invert of four, putting him outside row two for the 30-lap main event.
"At the start of the race, Ricky (Logan) gave me a big slider," says Wayne. The driver of the FattFro #14AJ settled into third, and found his groove. "Four or five laps later, when I got back in my rhythm, I gave him a big one back. Once I was by him, I decided I better do it on the leader (Donny Goeden) too."
Wayne's pass of Goeden came on lap fifteen, and his run to the finish was slowed down on several occasions. "There were a ton of cautions and reds slowing things down, but once we were in front, we felt good," he says. "Even when I came to the checkered flag there was such a melee, that I couldn't even cross the finish line, they had to throw a caution out there!"
The win earned Wayne $2,500. He can't put a finger on his successes at Wilmot over the years, but he'll take them. "I just seem to do well there," he says. "When I won with the Gumout Series (2002), the track had reverse banking, and now it doesn't. It's just a different track to be sure. It's hard to get around, and Friday there was a curb that was about a foot tall to add to the challenge!"
Knoxville This Weekend
Wayne will run the FattFro #14AJ at the Knoxville Raceway this Saturday night in weekly 410 competition.
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 been the "Jack of All Trades" in 2007. He has competed in 360, 410 and midget action. The Wilmot event was his 50th of the year. He has 9 wins (18%), 36 top 5's (72%) and 43 top 10's (86%). The Wilmot win ended a bit of a drought, as it was his first since June 30 at Knoxville.
"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 competes at the Knoxville Nationals (Jason McConnell)
Bill W MediaMonroe, IA USA[email protected]
If this post isn't results, stories or something c
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@BillWMedia
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