Slinger's Johnson in hunt at Beaver Dam

Date: July 19, 2013

Slinger’s Johnson in hunt at Beaver Dam

By Nicholas Dettmann
Daily News Sports Editor

BEAVER DAM - Joe Johnson doesn’t particularly race for trophies. Bragging rights are what he’s after. However, Johnson needs a trophy as a way to prove he did something great, just in case someone doesn’t believe him.
Johnson won the Chilton track championship last year. Unfortunately for Johnson, shortly after the season, the track went bankrupt, and he didn’t get any hardware to prove his championship.
“It’s like, ‘Yeah, we won it, but we don’t have anything to show for it,’” Johnson said.
“It’d be nice to get something to show for it and our hard work for the year.”
With the season half over at Beaver Dam Raceway, Johnson is in contention to add to his trophy case. Johnson is second in the points standings in the legends division at Beaver Dam, 19 points behind Mike Mueller. Johnson has hit a bit of a rough patch the last two races, finishing 18th and 16th.
However, before that, Johnson was strong. In the first seven races of the season, the Slinger native had finished in the top four in each race for an average finish of 2.6. He has one feature victory as well.
“This year has been my best season by far,” Johnson said.
Johnson, a 2004 Slinger High School graduate, finished second in the 2011 points standings at Beaver Dam, but ran a partial schedule in 2012.
A couple of rule changes this season helped Johnson as they seem to fit more of his driving style. One of the big changes was the brakes package.
“You can carry (the car) into the corner farther,” Johnson said. “I can get in the corner farther and get back on the gas at the same point.”
“Out on the track, I can see I’m gaining probably two-car lengths on cars coming into the corners,” he added.
This is Johnson’s ninth year in the division and seems to be perfectly happy with where he’s at.
“The car’s are inexpensive and they’re not all that easy to drive,” Johnson said. “There’s not really any maintenance to them per week ... if you don’t wreck them.”
Johnson got into the legends division for safety reasons. He started racing go-karts when he was about 13. After a couple of instances where he flipped over in his go-kart at 70 mph, his father, Bill Johnson III, looked at him and said it was time to put Johnson in a car with a roll cage.
One of Johnson’s greatest achievements was winning the 2007 state championship for the Wisconsin Dirt Legends series.
Johnson isn’t overly interested in switching to an asphalt late model, simply because it’s a bigger time and money commitment, one that he doesn’t want to make. But that’s OK. His family were legends on the dirt anyways.
Johnson’s grandfather was one of Slinger Superspeedway’s greatest drivers.
Bill Johnson Jr. won the midgets division track championship at Slinger in 1948, the year the track opened. Johnson also won four modified track championships at Slinger (1963, 1965, 1966, 1968).
In all, Johnson Jr. won 19 track championships between Cedarburg, Beaver Dam, Slinger, State Fair Park, Hales Corners and Plymouth. He, along with his father Bill Johnson Sr., were inducted into the Southeastern Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame in 2007.
At the time of his retirement, Bill Johnson Jr. was the only driver to sweep all five track championships in the same season.
If Joe Johnson were to leave the legends division, he’d like to race a winged sprint car.
“People still come up to me and say, ‘You’re Billy Johnson’s grandson,’ and expect me to fill those shoes,” Johnson said. “I don’t think those are shoes anybody could fill.”
And, as one could imagine, it’s not easy to even come remotely close to filling those shoes.
“He raced six nights and was competitive six nights a week,” Johnson said.
Winning a second track championship won’t remove him from his grandfather’s shadow, but it’ll be a step, albeit a small one, out of it.
Johnson said he doesn’t race for championship points only because he doesn’t want that to be a determining factor to how he drives in a race. If he’s consistent, the points will take care of itself. Winning and winning often is far more satisfactory.
“If I’m at the points lead at the end, I’m in the points lead at the end,” Johnson said. “The only thing we’re going to gain out of it is bragging rights and a trophy.”
And the bragging rights will be sweet.
“The competition has gotten harder (since 2010),” Johnson said. “It makes winning that much better.”
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Germantown’s Nick Strobbe Jr. won one of the two heat races in the grand nationals division Saturday at Plymouth. Strobbe finished third in the “A” main feature.
Kewaskum’s Shane Wenninger took second in the 360 Sprint Car “A” main at Plymouth. He was also the division’s hard-charger award winner. Kewaskum’s Donny Goeden won one of the four heat races.
West Bend’s Paul Pokorski was third in the “B” main.
Wenninger was also seventh Friday at the Manitowoc County Fairgrounds, and Pokorski was eighth and was the division’s hardcharger winner, improving nine positions.
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Wilmot Raceway will host 3-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart on Aug. 16.
Stewart will race with the Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprint Car Series at the track. It’ll be Stewart’s second race of the season with the IRAs. On June 15, he won the “A” main at Plymouth.