Pairing of Ronnie Johnson and Brucebilt paid dividends for both in 2016

During 2016, Knoxville based chassis builder Brucebilt Performance decided to construct a house car and enter it in select races throughout the season. With no specific driver designated for the seat in the machine that would primarily compete in Crate Late Model events, the company was free to enlist multiple pilots for their ride.

Prominently, one of the drivers on the short list to turn laps in the Brucebilt ride was National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member Ronnie Johnson. The arrangement that put the legendary wheel man in the No. B1 car was orchestrated by Brucebilt employee Brad Hall, himself an accomplished racer as well as a longtime friend of Johnson.

“Well, him and Brad have been real good friends and me and Ronnie have been acquaintances for a long time too,” explained Brucebilt mastermind Bruce Nunnally in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “We just wanted to get a car together, something we could keep in the shop and look at and develop with. We really needed somebody to drive to where we could work on it. Brad’s my tech guy and he really needed to be able to work on a car instead of driving a car. It’s worked out really well.”

Johnson’s decades worth of experience proved to be very beneficial for the chassis building organization as they raced, and won, during the summer months around the east Tennessee region.

“It’s unbelievable what you can learn,” Nunnally declared of Johnson. “He has the ability to drive it and really let you know what you’ve got. You couldn’t ask for a better guy to do it.”

The pairing of chassis builder and driver paid immediate dividends as a victory resulted in the car’s first competitive race on July 26th in a $1,500-to-win Crate Late Model feature at the Boyd’s Speedway. Prior to that outing, the car had been on track just one other time for a test session.

“That was unbelievable, really,” Nunnally remembered. “It was great. We’re very appreciative of Ronnie going and testing it. And I’m very thankful to have gotten Brad, he’s been a great addition to the shop. The two of them really work well together. Ronnie is just so good to work with. I couldn’t have hoped for much more.”

Nunnally believes the combination of Johnson’s experience and his notoriety will not only add to the performance level of the Brucebilt cars but will also help to sell them.

“We needed somebody like him to sit in that car and prove that we could get there,” the veteran car builder pointed out. “He came and looked at the cars before he did the deal and looked around the shop and he said it was a really good looking piece and he wouldn’t have expected any less.”

Not only did Johnson partner with Brucebilt in order to get to drive the new car, but he also had other reasons for stepping away from his own operation. In total, the ‘Chattanooga Flash’ raced the car six times with every start resulting in a podium finish, including that initial win at Boyd’s. Ultimately, he was the only driver to race the car during the 2016 campaign.

“My racing program this year, I’ve been struggling a little bit,” Johnson explained. “I’ve just been short of help. I’ve had some really good helpers over the years and those guys still come around but it just seems like it’s so hard to put a good program together and have a consistent group of people to go to the races. My results have been showing that we don’t have our program together good.”

Johnson further attributed the success shared by Brucebilt and himself to the efforts of Hall.

“Brad Hall went to work at Brucebilt several months ago,” Johnson began. “Him and the guys over there decided to put a car together for testing and racing purposes to give feedback to their customers. All these guys are old friends and this is certainly not the first car that I’ve had that Bruce Nunnally has built, we’ve had them for years and I’ve known Brad Hall for years. We’ve worked together before. Brad and I talked from time to time and he wanted know if I was interested in coming out to Boyd’s and making some laps in the car. We did and it was successful. I don’t know if they actually had any plans as to what they were going to do with this thing, but in the conversation we talked about racing it, and here we are.”

Johnson points out that his driving efforts are greatly helped when there are others who can take care of the car’s preparation.

“We certainly had a good run there,” he recalled of the win at Boyd’s. “They brought a good car, for sure. But me not being responsible for the car at the track lets me go and look at the track and keep up with what’s going on. Those are things I haven’t been able to do at all this year. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some help at the races and I appreciate that. I usually have help at the track but I’m the guy who’s responsible for getting things done and it’s just taken a toll on putting a good program together. Everybody is getting better and everybody is getting better stuff. It’s always been that way and it’s always going to be that way so my program had kind of gotten stagnant while everybody else is working and had gotten better.”

Johnson believes both he and the Brucebilt team can learn from their joint efforts.

“Hopefully these guys can learn about their car and talk to their customers and I’ve got a load off of me and can concentrate on the race track and try to concentrate on my driving. Hopefully that will work out well for all of us.”