2J Billy Johns 358 Sprint Racing

Sam — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:19:34 +0000

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Judith Trayer Johns, Billy’s monther. Judy died on Thursday August 5, 2010 at Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College.

The funeral will take place Wednesday August 11 at Heinzelman’s Funeral Services, 1034 Benner Pike, State College, PA, with friends received from 9-11am and service beginning at 11am.

You can read her full obituary and sign her Guest Book here.

Thank you all for your support over the years and during this difficult time.

welcome!

Sam — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:38:21 +0000

You’re not in the wrong place–this is still the official site of Billy Johns, the 358 driver from Central PA. We’re in the process of moving over to a wordpress (blog) format so that we can include more recent updates and a variety of content. Bear with us while we finalize the looks of the site and bring over more of the old stuff–but for now, add us to your feed reader or sign up to receive email updates (on the right)!

Thanks for sticking with us all these years…and we hope you’re getting excited for the 2010 sprint racing season!

March 20, 2009

Sam — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:20:05 +0000

Little did I know that at the first race of the season it would be colder than some of the days I spent this winter ski patrolling. The cold has been following the team around as evidenced by the first two days we were at Volusia (Fla) for the All Star/WOO races where we experienced 27 degrees and wind – BRRR!

Watching Billy come in second in his first race of the year, however, warmed up all of us. A starting spot of 6th and a good run up to third got Billy in the invert and passing points found him starting on the pole. Had he not dropped to second on the first lap, and if it had not been for a momentum-killing yellow flag with two to go, I believe Billy may have had a shot at his first win. A second place finish, and our ever present goal of putting the car and driver on the trailer in one piece will go down as an OK result.

Billy’s only engine ran strong thanks to set up help from Don Ott and his guys. This year my two races attended have yielded a whole slew of blown engines, perhaps from the cold air. A blown engine can ruin a team owner’s whole day with damages often in 5 figures and rarely less than well into four figures. The only financial relief this year so far has been that the price of methanol is down from $4.00 per gallon to $3.00. We went through 30 gallons plus Friday night.

I will try to be more regular at updating this page this year, and now that our Clipboard Chick Emeritus has finished her Masters Degree at UNC, more time may be available. Our next race is April 17 and hopefully my taxes will be done and it will be warmer.

E-mail any comments or questions to the Webmaster.

Until next time:

“Big Dave”