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Wednesdays with Wayne- Great Weekend in Elma!

Wayne Johnson and the Two-C Racing team built some momentum last weekend, climbing five spots in the Lucas Oil ASCS National Sprint Car Series standings. The Oklahoma City driver now sits third in points after a pair of runner-up finishes at the Fred Brownfield Classic at Grays Harbor Raceway near Elma, Washington. The team now heads to Gallatin Speedway in Belgrade, Montana for another two-night event this Friday and Saturday.

Last Friday, Wayne would line up seventh for his heat. “Slippy’s (Conner Nelson) draw has been consistently (bad),” he says. “We were good in the heat though, and we were able to make it up to third. So the passing points helped us out.”

He qualified for a redraw that saw him start third in the preliminary feature. “Johnny (Herrera) started on the pole, and we raced each other hard on the start,” says Wayne. “The two of us racing allowed Sam (Hafertepe) to get by us both.”

Hafertepe would go on to win with Wayne holding down second. Locked into Saturday’s finale, he would draw a starting spot outside row two. “The same thing really that happened Friday happened on Saturday,” he says. “(Seth) Bergman was supposed to start outside the front row, but he had issues and had to go to the pits. That put us in the front row. Johnny and I raced our asses off on the start. We raced each other way too hard and let Sam get by us again.”

A battle for second with Herrera ensued. “I had to get back by Johnny,” says Wayne. “Once we had him cleared, Sam and I were basically the same, running the same speed and we ended up second again. There was a top and a bottom both nights if you needed to move around. Sam was better than everyone both nights. Our times were about the same, but it’s also about track position, and he had that.”

All in all, the team was very happy with the weekend. “We were good all weekend really,” says Wayne. “We’re catching up with our stuff and getting better and better. We’re passing cars, so that’s a plus. We hadn’t been doing that consistently in a while.”

Wayne was also happy about gaining some in the season standings. “We went from seventh or eighth to third, so that was a great weekend,” he says. “That’s a pretty good chunk of money at the end of the year. That’s the difference between about $12,000 and $25,000.”

This will be the veteran’s first ever trip to Belgrade.

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