Wednesdays with Wayne – Back in the Sooner State!
(Bill W) June 18, 2014 – The Wayne Johnson Racing #77x team will be back in the Sooner state this week for the Bob Westphal Memorial ASCS Speedweek. Tonight, they will head to the Lawton Speedway, before towing to Creek County Speedway in Sapulpa tomorrow, and the Outlaw Motor Speedway near Wainwright on Friday. Saturday, they will be back at Knoxville.
The Oklahoma City native now living in Knoxville is looking forward to getting to Lawton tonight for more reasons than one. “I think we’ve won the last two times we’ve been at Lawton,” says Wayne. “I grew up racing there. We’d race at Oklahoma City on Friday nights and go to Lawton on Saturday. It’s kind of awesome this week, because my mom is going down. She only gets to go racing about once a year.”
Creek County Speedway will lend more familiarity. “We head to Sapulpa on Thursday,” says Wayne. “I raced locally there for a long time. We’re heading to some tracks that we’re familiar with this week, so that’s going to be good.”
Though he’s visited Outlaw Motor Speedway fewer times, Wayne is no stranger to Victory Lane there either. “We head to Wainwright on Friday,” he says. “I’ve only been there a few times, but we have a couple of wins there too. I remember a win there in the FattFro car.”
Wayne will have a familiar bullet under the hood this week. “This is the motor we set quick time with at the 360 Nationals last year,” he says. “We actually had it sold before someone backed out, so we kept it in the family.”
Last week saw late pills and dry tracks at Jackson and Knoxville plague the team’s nights. The team suffered a DNF at Jackson Speedway in Minnesota. “The late pills didn’t help us, but we just haven’t been fast either,” says Wayne. “We’re still struggling. The tires have been a real issue for us in the 410’s.”
Timing 46th out of 48 cars at Knoxville didn’t make matters any better on Saturday. The track went away quickly. “In the heat at Knoxville, our lap times were right there with everyone else, but we were starting eleventh,” says Wayne. “When you time in 40th quick or whatever it was…there’s no coming back from that.”
Wayne is hoping the trip to the old stomping grounds brings some luck. “It will be good to do something a little different this week,” he says. “Hopefully, we can get our confidence back up, and we’ll be back at them at Knoxville on Saturday if the weather holds out like it’s supposed to.”
Category: Driver Updates, Wayne Johnson
