Well March has arrived and the racing season is starting to draw closer.  Plans have changed since the last update.  Due to scheduling conflicts Wayne Johnson Racing will not be making the trip to Beatrice NE for the IMCA Spring Nationals.  Our first racing action of the season looks to be May 1st at Estevan Motor Speedway. 

We have been busy working at the shop since our last update.  The late model is ready for the most part with the exception of the graphics.  There is a chance we may have it at the Wild About Wheels car show in Minot the weekend of the 27th of March.  Our new 2010 Harris modified is nearing completion with mainly odds and ends to complete on it.  The 2009 car is starting to come together. 

Other than the updates there is no breaking news at the Johnson Racing shop.  Once again we will try to get pictures of our progress up sometime in the near future.

We hope to see everyone at the Wild About Wheels car show.  Its been a long winter and we are excited to see and visit with everyone. 

Well its been a while since we have done any updates here.  With the two feet of snow on the ground here in Minot its hard to be thinking of racing.  Even though its tough to think of it the Johnson Racing crew has been hard at work since the end of the racing season.  We recently made the trip to Boone IA to pick up our new 2010 Harris chassis.  The plans are to have two Harris modifieds.  We have also been hard at work on the latemodel.  We plan on competing in the same GRT chassis we had last year.  We will be debuing a new look for the latemodel for 2010.  We are planning on our first event being the IMCA Spring Nationals in Beatrice NE in March.  We are unsure of the dates as of now though.  Those plans are certainly subject to change though.  Thats all the news we have for now.  We will try to update the pictures section of the site pretty soon. 

Wayne and the entire Johnson Racing crew hopes everyone had an excellent Christmas, and sends everyone wishes wonderful New Year.  Most of all we hope this season finds you safe and happy. 

Happy Hollidays Everyone

Wayne and the crew started off the weekend on a high note.  Wayne usually doesnt have very much luck in drawing but was able to draw a 21.  This started Wayne on the pole of the very last heat race of the night.  Our good fortune was short lived though when we saw the lineup for the heat race.  Wayne was on the pole but his heat race was one of the toughest if not the toughest heat race of the night.  We watched the track all night and were a little gun shy of making any changes since the car had been so good.  The heat race didnt go as we had hoped as Wayne crossed the finish line in fourth place.  The top three advanced to the feature.  Atleast we had a good starting spot for the B-Main on Sunday.

Sunday brought hope sunny skies and a beautiful day.  We talked to some other competitors and observed a few things.  We made some changes to the car and were pretty confident that we would make the A-Main by finishing fourth or better in the B-Main.  But as fate would have it from the drop of the green flag the car was not to Wayne's liking.  Wayne brought the ill handling car home in 8th place.

In hindsight after the rough conditions in Grand Forks the last time out with the latemodel we should have gone through things to make sure there were no issues.  Unfortunately we didnt and we feel like that is the reason for the ill handling car.

This concludes the 2009 season for Wayne Johnson Racing.  Keep checking the site as we will update it periodically with pictures and information of what has been happining at the shop.  As for now Nodak Speedway wont be racing until after the fair so we are not sure what our plans will be for racing next year.  The only thing we do know is we will have a modified and will be running the latemodel in selected events next year.

Wayne and the crew are currently en-route to Jamestown for the 38th Annual Stock Car Stampede.  Wayne will only be driving the 11J late model.  The last time out in the late model had the makings of a great night till circumstances beyond Wayne’s control ended the night prematurely.  The late model has been going pretty good so we are optimistic for a good showing.  This will be the last event for the 2009 season for Wayne Johnson Racing.  Friday night’s program will only consist of a heat race, with b-mains and features on Saturday.  We will update everyone as soon as we can on the happenings of the weekend.

Wayne Johnson Racing headed to Williston for the final event of the season at Basin Speedway.  Saturday night got off to a great start as Wayne started on the front row of the heat race and was the first to take the checkers.  This started Wayne on the inside of the second row for the feature, and with everyone running the low line Wayne went to the top to give it a try.  For the short term he found it to his liking and was battling Steve Pfeifer for second when the moisture he was using went away.  Wayne fell in line, but due to being in the wrong line on some restarts he came away with a 6th place finish.

Wayne went back to work on the car for Sunday night.  I am not sure how the heat race went as my conversation with Wayne was centered on the events of the feature.  Wayne took the lead from Steve Pfeifer at one point, but on a restart Steve was able to take the lead back.  Wayne kept at it though and was beside Steve for the lead when Steve over drove the corner and spun out.  The officials called Wayne for the caution after which Wayne pulled in.

All in all the final weekend was about par for the course for the year.  Start off great have what seems to be a promising night ahead and have our hopes dashed due to something out of Wayne control.  This concludes the season for the Modified, but Wayne Johnson will be loading up the late model and heading to the Stock Car Stampede in Jamestown September 25th and 26th.  As of now the Stampede will conclude the 2009 Wayne Johnson Racing season.  As always though plans are subject to change.

Once again we need to appologise for the lack of updates here on the old website.  As many of you know it has been a very trying season for Wayne Johnson Racing.  It's no excuse but when having a season such as the one that has been had a person is not real excited to tell everyone how bad things have gone.  With that being said things have actually looked up the last month or so.  Here are a few highlights since the last update.

On August 21st Wayne and the crew loaded up the late model up and headed to the eastern part of the state for the first ever trip to River Cities Speedway.  The late models were running in conjuction with the World of Outlaws sprint cars.  Grand Forks had recieved a large amount of rain during the week, this left the pits very wet and the racetrack very tacky and rough.  Wayne started in the back of the heat race(8th) and was fast around the bottom of the track.  He crossed the finish line door to door with the second place car, but was credited with a 3rd place finish.  With the redraw Wayne started 6th in the feature.  He ran between 4th and 6th for most of the race untill the last part of the race.  The car came on, and Wayne found a line that was very much to his liking and took off.  As the laps ran down Wayne made a pass for 3rd and was making the pass for second when the driver he had just passed for 3rd decided he didnt like Wayne being infront of him.  He ended up smashing into the left side of the car, and in the process flattening the left rear tire.  Wayne was credited with a 16th place finish.

August 30th was championship night at Nodak Speeday.  Since comming back from the fair break Wayne we had, had a mix of a little good luck and some bad luck.  Wayne was able to win the heat race rather convincingly.  He started on the outside of the front row for the feature, and left little doubt of who was going to take the checkers first.  Wayne lead every one of the 25 lap feature and won it going away.  Wanye and the crew were extatic as this was the first W(win) of the season. 

August 29th was championship night at Basin Speedway in Williston, and Wayne went into the night with a somewhat comfortable 7 point lead over Try Heupel.  The heat race was a rather hairy one, but Wayne was able to keep his nose clean and finished 3rd in the heat.  He started the feature in 12th place and quickly moved up to about 6th or 7th place.  A couple cars got together infront of Wayne and when he checked up the driver behind him had nowhere to go and spun Wayne to the infeild.  Wayne made contact with a ute tire and unknown to him bent the steering.  Wayne restarted the race in about 6th and was making a pass when he spun due to the bent steering.  This sent him to the back of the pack.  Wayne restarted about 18th and by the end of the feature had worked his way back up to about 10th.  Fortunately for Wayne, Troy had some trouble too and finished one spot behind Wayne.  This made Wayne Johnson the 2009 Basin Speedway Season Champion.  This is Johnson Racings first ever points championship in Williston.

As previously mentioned those are the highlights over about the last month.  The final modified race of the season will be this weekend September 12th and 13th at Basin Speedway in Williston.  Next weekend Johnson Racing will take the weekend off.  Then Wayne Johnson racing will wrap up the 2009 in the latemodel at the Stock Car Stampede in Jamestown.

We will do a better job of keeping everyone up to date these last few weekends.

First of all we want to apologies for not updating the website for a while.  Johnson racing has not had a good July at all.  Wayne Johnson participated in the first night of the Dakota Classic Modified Tour in Minot.  A bad start position in the heat race forced him to a B-Main.  In the B-Main another competitor decided that he wanted to slam into the side of the car and bend all the steering.  This resulted in a DNF.  Johnson racing then took the rest of the Tour off and the following weekend.

Wayne and the crew returned back the track in Dickinson on July 25th.  Wayne and the crew were all really excited.  This was the first night ever for Wayne in a late model, and we had learned a bunch from another competitor about the modified while watching a few nights of the tour.  Life was great in the heat races.  Wayne started dead last in the second modified heat race and drove up to second.  He said the car was awesome.  Then in the late model heat race with a second row inside starting spot Wayne was able to win the heat.  We were all thinking that maybe the racing gods were going to smile down on us this night.  Well that thought was short lived. 

We initially brought the Modified as a test to try the new things we learned.  Well in the heat it was so fast we decided to give it a go in the feature.  Wayne started 4th row outside, and after three laps he was contending for the lead.  Then the caution cam out.  On the restart one of the competitors evidentially left his brain in the pits and pulled off an incredibly idiotic move that left Wayne sitting sideways on the straightaway.  The end result was a severely bent racecar.  Not a good ending to the modified feature.  We were just happy that Wayne only suffered a few bruises in the accident as he was hit in the driver’s door.  He wwas lucky and unlucky at the same time.

Wayne only had a few minutes to collect his thoughts before he had to climb into the late model.  He didn't draw very well and was starting mid pack.  He had passed a few cars before the setup on the car went away.  This left Wayne basically fighting to stay where he was.  About mid race someone spun in front of Wayne and he has nowhere to go.  The accident ended the night in the late model.  Talk about a bad night.  Definitely the worst of Wayne’s career.

The next night it was off to Williston.  After working nearly all day to fix the crash damage to the late model it was finally race time.  Wayne broke out the other modified and was able to finish fourth in the heat race.  In the late model he started on the front row outside in the late model and drove away from the pack winning the heat race handily. 

The modified feature was a pretty good result for Wayne with a third place finish.  Wayne then immediately jumped into the late model, and with another outside front row starting spot Wayne ran second most of the heat race.  A restart with eight laps to go cost Wayne second place and dropped him to third.  On a restart with two laps to go Wayne was able to get second back, and made a push for the win.  Unfortunately his efforts came up a half of a car length short.

All in all a horrible month.  We can't wait for the calendar to change to August.  The late model was the only bright spot really for the month.  Wayne Johnson will return to the track this weekend August 1st and 2nd in Mandan for the Governors Cup.  We will only be racing the late model though.  Once again we are hoping for a better weekend.

Johnson Racing had a busy weekend planned for the 4th of July weekend.  It indeed was a busy weekend for all the wrong reasons.  Wayne and the crew headed to Williston on the 3rd.  After a second place finish in the heat race, mother nature let loose with a downpour thus ending the night. 

Then it was on to Nodak Speedway for the 4th.  While running in 4th in the heat the engine expired.  Wayne and the crew unloaded the spare car and qualified for the feature with a second place finish in the B-Main.  Then in the feature the rear suspension broke at the drop of the green flag once again ending the night early.

Sunday brought an engine change and renwed hope for a good night.  Wayne was able to pull off a pass on a restart in the heat and won the heat going away.  The evening also featured a special event to benefit a young child with an illness.  Wayne was running 4th in the even when once again the engine let go.  Wayne didn't want to get the spare car again, and once again the night ended early.

Johnson racing will give it another go this sunday at Nodak Speedway for the first night of the Dakota Classic Modified Tour.  We hope our luck finally turns around.  As of now plans arn't certain for the Tour at this point.  We will do our best to keep everyone posted.