Ronnie Johnson
Ronnie Johnson has been racing for more than four decades. And while some aspects of the way he approaches the sport may have changed over the years, one thing remains a constant for the Chattanooga, Tenn. legend. He still has a burning passion for Dirt Late Model racing and that passion drives him seek more checkered flags and championships.
“Passion is a word I use a lot,” Johnson said in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “I love this, but it’s been a struggle the last couple of weeks. A guy who had been helping me for the last year or so quit and you simply can not do this by yourself, you can’t do it, me and him couldn’t do it. But I use that word passion a lot and it doesn’t just pertain to me because I’ve been racing a long time. It pertains to everybody that has something to do with this sport whether they be a driver, a sponsor, a car owner, a track official or someone that covers the sport.”
Johnson has made racing his life’s work. At the same time, he reveres those who have to set racing aside in favor of their livelihoods but still are able to strap on a helmet and race competitively.
“The people that I admire are the people who work, that have a business or a regular job, and still race and are still competitive,” Johnson remarked. “They shouldn’t be. They shouldn’t be able to be competitive. But you don’t do it for the money, you do it because you love it.”
Johnson’s love for the sport came from within his family. His father, Joe Lee Johnson, was himself a legendary racer. But he was not entirely on board with his son’s desire to follow in his tire tracks.
“I grew up around racing,” Johnson explained. “My dad raced. He didn’t try every way in the world to keep me from racing, but he knew what I was going to face because he had been there.”(Look for a follow up to this story coming soon in which RJ details his early days in racing)
The fire in Johnson’s eyes and the deep passion in his voice for racing are apparent when he talks about the sport. Even through all the ups and downs that every racer must face, his desire to keep coming back has not faded.
Johnson enjoys the competitive nature of the sport
“I love it,” the ‘Chattanooga Flash’ reiterated. “I’ve been doing this since 1973, 42 years, and I’m not going to be able to do it for another 42 more. Racing is fickle. You’ll have spells where you’ll get in a situation where you win four or five in a row and you think you’re going to go win the next one until you have a bad night.
“Then you can get in a rut, and we’ve been in a rut here lately,” the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member admitted. “But I’m going to soldier on no matter what. You never know what’s going to happen in a race until you go to it.”
While he loves racing, there are some aspects of the work he does that Johnson likes less than others. But those tasks are overshadowed by the things he genuinely enjoys doing.
“The hardest thing about doing this, the part I like the least, is the clean up and the maintenance and there’s so much of it anymore,” Johnson pointed out. “I love working on my car. Man, I love making stuff. If you get to know me, a lot of the stuff on the cars and a lot of the stuff on the truck and trailers and in my shop are hand made. Honestly, there’s newer stuff at times and sometimes I’m slow to warm up to it.”
Many of us view our chosen profession as something we have to do rather than something we love to do. Johnson says he has never viewed racing in those terms.
“It’s not really like a job,” he declared. “I love it when things get going smooth and you’re running good and you finish in one piece. Then you can tinker with the car and put together a new setup or something. I tell people all the time that I go to sleep at night trying to figure out how I can do better. When I get up, I go out and start working on this stuff.
Johnson just loves working on his car
“I love driving the old truck, I mean I love all of it. It does get mundane, the maintenance and all, but it’s never been like a job. I don’t know how many times I’ve told people that if I had put the effort into a job or a business that I’ve put into this I could have been better off. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and seriously, there’s not many years when you’ve got money in the bank to make it through the winter. People don’t believe that because they see you out there winning a race or they see you win a $20,000 point fund, but trust me, that money was spent to get it. You’re spending it to get it.”
