Warren Johnson and his race cars.

[Hemi Moose]

Always liked Warren Johnson as a racer...lets here some of your old stories about him or some of his race cars if you have any.

[Geerhead55]

Got 2 stories,,, not much really,, I remember the first time we saw WJ was here at Seattle in '76 and he had the big block Camaro, but that summer belonged to the AMCs and both Booth and Maskins & Kanners were here too with their Hornets. After the Friday qualifying was done we saw how strong the Hornets were, so my buddies and I are walking around the pits, which were dirt and gravel and grass back then, and low and behold heres WJ thrashing on his engine before the Saturday sessions. The Grump's group was in the middle of a swap, so we ventured back over to Warren's when we heard him fire up. I remember there was no rope steup for fans that day so I walked right up to the Camaro as he was sitting in it warming the engine, and I'm watching his tach as he brings up the revs, and all of a sudden he really wings it and it goes over 10 grand! I turned around and told my friends,"I just saw a big block go over 10,000 rpms!",,and we walked away amazed at that,, not to mention the sound of it too.
The second story is in Phoenix,, 2005 on Sunday morning before the first round, we had passes to back stage before the driver's intros, and we're milling around, sons getting autographs and pictures, when my buddy with a camera say "Danny, move over a bit!" Well, there was WJ standing about 5 feet away, so I say "How about a picture, Warren?" to which he grumbled something, and stood there with his best poker face on. I'm thinking Bill Jenkins got the nickname that Warren should've always had,, although my only conversation with Grump, in Seattle '74, didn't go much better.
Danny Durham

[Geerhead55]

Theres an ex WJ Firebird up here in division 6,, a GM Performance Parts "Superman" car in one of the sportsman classes out of B.C. I believe. If Rory sees this he can elaborate further.
Danny Durham

[Hemi Moose]

Here's a few more shots of WJ's pro stock Camaro with early lettering.

[Hemi Moose]

And WJ's pro stock Camaro with later lettering...

[Hemi Moose]

Gearhead, cool story...so if WJ was in his Camaro what was Grumpy in a Monza or Camaro back then...if forget when they all switched from Vega's, Monza's and Camaro's.

[Phillip marvetz]

Originally Posted by Geerhead55

Theres an ex WJ Firebird up here in division 6,, a GM Performance Parts "Superman" car in one of the sportsman classes out of B.C. I believe. If Rory sees this he can elaborate further.
Danny Durham

The same fellow owns Warrens last winning Performance parts GTO also. He has ran the Superman car ( First pro stocker to run over 200mpk) in comp as a B/AA.

[Geerhead55]

Originally Posted by Phillip marvetz

The same fellow owns Warrens last winning Performance parts GTO also. He has ran the Superman car ( First pro stocker to run over 200mpk) in comp as a B/AA.

Thanks for the update,,Phillip.
Danny Durham

[Dinsdale]

Being a Ford guy I was never a WJ fan but he did come over to our Motorhome in Brainerd in 1976 and drink some Canadian beer with us. We were there a day early to spectate and ended up helping prep the track for testing. He was very cool as were the security guys that didn't kick us out that weekend.

Later on I got to appreciate his work ethic and tenacity and love his outspoken comments whenever he thought something wasn't right. I have another story about nitro in his oil pan but will save that one.....