Wednesdays with Wayne – Bachelor’s Soup!
Thursday, June 7, 2007
(Bill W) – Things started well enough for Wayne Johnson last Saturday night in 410 competition at Knoxville Raceway, but even a top ten run fell a little short of the driver’s expectations coming in. After coming off an Eastern 360 tour that saw two wins, two seconds and two fourths, his run last Saturday was a little tough to swallow.
Registering the third quick time of the night in the 32 car field, Wayne put the FattFro #14AJ outside of the third row of his heat, and he would finish fifth. Still it was not enough for the Knoxville driver. “It boils down to not being good enough,” he explains. “We haven’t been 410 racing enough, and we missed the setup. Third quick on a nine-race old motor isn’t too bad, but I’m not going to make any excuses, we just stunk!”
Despite putting himself in the show, Wayne felt a little bit uncomfortable with the transition from the last few weeks when he was 360 racing. “We were chasing stuff this week. There’s a difference in the steering between the 360 and 410 cars. This one (410) has old style steering in it. Going back and forth between the two, the difference in the speed has got me out to lunch!”
Starting outside of row four, Wayne managed to move up a couple spots, but was passed by some of the cars surging through the field. On lap nine, he spun by himself in turn one, and headed to the work area to make some adjustments. “We changed some stuff to tighten the car up and everything felt fine. We kind of slowed the steering down after the heat race. The car drove nice, we were good, I just need to be consistent and most of all do it (410) more and more and more to be on top of my game.”
Johnson managed to fight his way back to tenth, but the car still wasn’t where Wayne wanted it. This Saturday night, he’s hoping for more and feels good about his chances. “In the feature, we were just horrible. We’ve been running all the small tracks, but I’m pumped and ready for this week. (Car owner) Al (Christoffer) is going to be here, and I have something to prove!”
A Look Ahead
Wayne will continue his quest for the ASCoT championship as their Northern Tour will kick off on Saturday, June 16 at the Crawford County Speedway in Denison, Iowa. He will compete in the Mike and Tim Hammers/Robbie Forbes #94 on Tuesday, June 19, as the traveling band will hit I-90 Speedway near Hartford, South Dakota, and then move on to the North Central Speedway near Brainerd, Minnesota on Wednesday, June 20. The northern swing will conclude on Saturday, June 23, at the Dakota State Fair Speedway near Huron, South Dakota.
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