August 17, 2002

Johnny Is Back On The Podium (3rd) At Elkhart Lake

Johnny drove the #64 Jaguar to a third place finish today at the Johnson Controls 100 at Elkhart Lake. Around the middle of the race he found himself in a fierce battle with Butch Leitzinger. He had 7 or 8 unsuccessful attempts to pass him before finally getting by. The next lap, Butch ran off into the pea gravel and ended up finishing 3 laps down in 21st position. Towards the end of the race, Boris, Paul, and Johnny ran away from the field. Johnny was concentrating on getting past Paul when Stu Hayner made a late race charge at third. Johnny had to change focus to hold off Hayner and settle for the podium.

This finish has tightened up the driver's championship points. Unofficially, Boris leads with 231, Paul advances to second with 202, Butch holds onto third at 189 and Johnny is now at 177.

Johnny commented on today's race by saying "We had a great run today. You always want to win, that's what it's ultimately all about, but after being involved in some great racing today, third feels pretty good and will do."

Concering his battle with Butch Leizinger he noted "We raced each other really hard for a few laps. It took some body work and a bunch of brake pad to finally get by him. It was an absolute blast...great fun."

Boris won the race, followed by Paul Gentilozzi, Johnny, Stu Hayner 4th, Tone Ave 5th, Randy Ruhlman 6th, Greg Pickett 7th, Tomy Drissi 8th, Paul Menard 9th, and Paul Fix 10th.

Johnny goes back to Mid-Ohio sportscar course for a testing day on Monday. He will run the track with teammates Paul and Tomy. Actor Paul Newman will join the trio in a rocketsports car for the day long session.

The next race is on the streets of Denver on September 1st.