Profile On: Roland Johnson!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Master’s Classic Entrant, Roland Johnson Drives His Son, RJ’s Family-owned 360
By Joanne Cram
Roland Johnson of Tampa, Florida is geared up to race his first ever Master’s Classic at the age of 60. The Land of Lakes, suburb of Tampa, Florida, native is calling Knoxville his home for the summer, just as he did last summer. Roland is the father of last year’s regular, and this year’s semi-regular driver, RJ Johnson in the 71 car. This weekend though, the car will be transformed to Roland’s old car number of 72 to commemorate his resurgence to sprint car racing. Its been five years since Roland has competed in a 360. He gave it some thought last year, but decided against it. With RJ’s new position working on the road for Kathryne Minter with her ASCS National touring car, this freed up Roland’s options!
Roland began racing motocross back in the early 70’s when he first returned from the service. All of his buddies were out with their dirt bikes, so Roland got one too. He decided to take his riding to the next level and teamed up with friends who owned a Yamaha Shop and went motocross racing all over the East Bay area.
After he had his fill with motocross, he moved to flat track and road racing. As most racers go, there is always something to drive that can take your ability to the next level, so Roland moved into karting. He ran karts all over the country for a couple years.
Then in 1982, the opportunity arose to drive an open-wheeled modified, a distant cousin of today’s sprint car. (Several are on display at the Sprint Car Hall of Fame). In mid 1984, Roland got into his first 360 sprint car where he spent the remainder of his racing career, until 2004, when RJ took over. In 1985, the chance to do some road racing materialized, and he was able to fit in road races in between his sprint car racing. Roland says the road racing just wasn’t for him, so he gave that up after a season to focus primarily on his sprint car racing.
With nearly 40 years of racing experience behind him, Roland has had a lot of successes. He won the track championship in 1985 at the now closed Florida State Fairgrounds Speedway in Tampa. He followed that up with a 1992 East Bay Track Championship as well.
Roland is no stranger to Knoxville, Iowa. He first came out in the summer of 1986 to work for Harold Annett’s Challenge Racing, where he became friends with Bob Thompson (who’s son, Tyler also races 360s here at Knoxville.) Being here in Knoxville gives the Johnson’s a chance to run with some of the most competitive drivers around, and Roland is very happy to call Knoxville is second home. Roland and his wife, Barbara (whom he married in 1986 while in Knoxville) are calling the Knoxville Raceway campgrounds home this summer, just as they did last summer.
With RJ gone for several races during the season, this leaves the seat of the 71 car open. The first race of the season found RJ piloting his car, then Josh Higday filled in for the second race. Roland called Travis Cram out of retirement to run the third race, and the teaming seems to be satisfactory all around. Roland says that Travis will fill in for RJ for the remainder of the season when schedules allow. Last week even found Roland behind the wheel gearing up for the Master’s Classic!
Barbara, Roland, and RJ have a huge fan club back in the Tampa area, with RJ’s siblings, Marc, Cami, and Melissa keeping tabs on them from home.
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