Johnson wins title at Beaver Dam

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 24, 2013

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor

BEAVER DAM — Joe Johnson didn't want a championship battle to determine his game plan each week on the race track.
For the first time this season Saturday at Beaver Dam Raceway, the battle was on his mind.
Johnson finished fifth in the legends division "A" main. By doing so, he wrapped up his first track championship at Beaver Dam and the second of his career.
"It's pretty cool," he said. "We came into the year just wanting to win as much as we could. We don't points race because, really, we're no good at it.
"If we could go out and win, the points would figure themselves out."
Johnson was one of the drivers to beat all season in the division. In 21 races, he had 18 top-fives, including four victories. His average finish was 4.9, including three finishes outside the top 15. All season, he knew consistency would be the determining factor in a championship season.
Of the three finishes outside the top 15 this season, two were mechanical failures and the other was a crash. Otherwise, it was a smooth season.
At Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Johnson won a feature as well.
"It's probably right at the top," he said when asked where his accomplishment ranks in his career. "I've won a lot of races in go-karts and legend cars. To put a whole season together is no easy task.
"The easiest way for me to deal with it was to not think about it and just go out there and run each race, one week at a time."
Richfield's James Bucher finished seventh in the points. Kewaskum's Bille Lehmann was ninth.
Johnson came close in 2011 at Beaver Dam, losing the championship by 27 points to Eric Barth, who went on to win the national championship as well.
Last year, Johnson won the track championship at Chilton. However, the track went bankrupt and he was unable to receive a trophy for the accomplishment. For the next year, he had that vacancy in his trophy case.
"We can't really look back at it and have any proof," Johnson said. "With this one it's something we can look back on. It was a team effort and we can hang our hats on that."
This championship will also go alongside one of Johnson’s greatest achievements: winning the 2007 state championship for the Wisconsin Dirt Legends series. It's also exciting for the family as Johnson joins his legendary grandfather to have won a track championship on more than one track. His grandfather is Southeastern Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame member Bill Johnson Jr.
Bill Johnson Jr. won the midgets division track championship at Slinger in 1948, the year the track opened. He also won four modified track championships at Slinger (1963, 1965, 1966, 1968).
In all, Bill 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 win five track championships in the same season.
Joe Johnson's first thought of winning the championship at Beaver Dam didn't enter his mind until after he won one of the three heat races Saturday. His competition, Mike Mueller, also won a heat race, which meant he didn't lose or gain any ground in the standings. He didn't need to do any calculating either. His wife and crew took care of that for him.
All he worried about was what he had to do on the track, and he drove smooth, smart and consistent.
"That put us in position to be able to just go out there and if we finish top 10 we would have it locked up," Johnson said. "At the same time, I can't just go out there and ride around. I didn't have to drive it as hard as I could to get as many position as I could. Otherwise it wouldn't have been satisfying for me to just go ride around and play it safe."
"We just went and did everything we had been doing," he added.
Germantown's David Jaeger finished third in the modified points standings.