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Wednesdays with Wayne – Cruising in Las Cruces!
(Bill W) November 17, 2010 – Wayne Johnson’s first ever trip to the
Southern New Mexico Speedway in Las Cruces, New Mexico was a success. After
locking himself into the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series’ finale with a
fourth place run in the prelim, a loss of use of the brakes relegated him to
an eighth place finish on Saturday. The Knoxville, Iowa driver now looks
forward to the Western World this weekend, held at the USA Raceway in
Tucson, Arizona.
Starting dead last (eighth) in his heat race in Friday’s prelim didn’t slow
Wayne down a bit as he charged to a second place finish, putting himself in
the redraw for the feature. “The racetrack was pretty good all weekend,” he
says. “They over-watered a bit the first night, and it took a little while
to get racy. It took awhile, but it got racy, and we were able to run up
through there in the heat.”
The track stayed heavy in the feature, and Wayne held on in the top five.
“We were running fourth there,” he says. “Everyone was running a little
tight, including us. It was kind of ‘follow the leader’ for awhile, and I
screwed up and bicycled up the track. Steve Kinser was able to get by me for
fourth and I was back in fifth, out of a lock-in spot.”
A late restart gave Wayne the break he needed to finish fourth and lock
himself into Saturday’s finale. “We were all running around there and a
caution came out to set up a green, white, checker,” he says. “Steve had
gotten by (Tim) Crawley for third. On the last restart, I was going to try
them off their right rear and try to make something happen. Steve screwed up
and got sideways down there and Crawley got into the back of him. That
opened the door for me to get by Crawley into fourth and getting locked in.”
Sometimes what you hear about a venue is not always true, and that was the
case last weekend at the Southern New Mexico Speedway. “Everyone I talked to
said the track would be a tire-eater, but it was good both nights,” says
Wayne. “It was colder than a well digger’s butt, but it was good racin’!”
After hot lapping, Wayne drew outside row three for the main event, and was
suddenly in a battle for second. “Of course, we drew the biggest number,
like usual,” he says. “Actually, we were able to start fourth when something
happened to (Johnny) Herrera’s car. At one time, I was up battling Gary
Wright for second. He got off the track and came back on, and I locked the
brakes up. That’s when the brake caliper fell off. That was early in the
race, and I just kind of backed up without brakes from there.”
Wayne would hold on the rest of the distance with an eighth place finish. He
now turns his focus towards this weekend’s Western World. He will qualify on
Thursday, with the finale scheduled for Saturday. “We’ll take eighth
considering everything,” he says. “We were pretty fast both nights, we just
had a tough Saturday there when the brake caliper fell off. We’re looking
forward to Tucson. We were able to run from 10th to 3rd last year on the
first night. The second night we were running well but lost the power
steering pump.”
Wayne is still looking for a permanent home in a sprint car. If you would
like to inquire about a partnership with Wayne, you can e-mail him at
waynejohnsonracing@yahoo.com
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