HM Racing – Not The Finish Required.
           

As an end to the 2009/10 Performance Wholesale World Series Sprintcar season, things didn’t finish the way HM Racing wanted them to, but overall this year has been a success for the Alan Haynes owned team.
           

To basically start from scratch to finish as a contender for the crown has been a monumental effort by the team and when you consider that they dropped the opening round as well, it makes the result look even more pleasing.
           

The last three nights of the series really didn’t reflect the effort and the speed that driver Jason Johnson had over in Western Australia. A spin while challenging for a podium on the extremely slick surface of Kalgoorlie ended with a scramble to make up as many points as possible from the rear of the field, eventually coming home with an eleventh place finish.
           

JJ was philosophical about the event saying “Kalgoorlie is a one of a kind, I struggled the first time here and for some reason I struggled again tonight. You have to put together a whole night to get a good result, but I made a pretty bad driver error in the A-Main and it proved a costly one.”
           

The final two nights at the Perth Motorplex showed promise but that too went from chocolates to boiled lollies. He claimed an eighth during the preliminary night final, but finished with a fifteenth in the final night A-Main after qualifying ninth, when a front axle broke sending Johnson in to the wall.
           

In the pits afterwards a naturally subdued Johnson talked about a number of things, but one thing that did shine through was how highly he regarded this team and the opportunity owner Alan Haynes had provided this season in Australia.
           

“To come all the way around the world and to come out of the box so strong working with Alan and all the guys at HM Racing was definitely an honor. They have taught me a new way of life, to enjoy life and have a lot of fun. One thing Alan said was that if we run good or run bad I still want to have fun. We definitely didn’t finish where we wanted to finish but there is no doubt we are still having fun.”
           

Crew Chief Brendan Telfer was also happy with what the team had succeeded in doing during the Australian Summer. “I can’t complain it’s been awesome, to win Speedweek – that was our championship – and to come away with that was pretty special, it’s something I’m proud of. Everything takes time and I was fortunate to spend time with Jason in America and put this whole operation together over there. I think it was the catalyst of our season as Jason was able to fit his seat in a car in America to make sure things were right, so once he came to Australia his mind was already set that he could bolt the seat in and go racing. It’s been awesome and I have to thank Alan and Lisa for the opportunity to take it to the next level as I wanted to do my own thing, and they provided everything I needed. Plus the trust they provided in me was pretty special and it made me want to work harder for them.”
           

Owner Haynes was also pleased with how things materialized over the course of the season. “This is the first time I actually put a team together as a car owner rather than a driver and I believe we started off probably better than we finished. In Kwinana here this weekend we did an engine in warm up and it didn’t help us as the engine we threw in wasn’t as good as we thought it was and we were down on horsepower for the bigger track.”
           

“We gave everyone a meeting head start (due to Johnson’s USA commitments) and we were playing catch up all season, so to finish fifth is a reasonable achievement. We won Speedweek which is a pretty good feather in our cap, we won the Parramatta round which was good, and most times we’ve been able to move forward after poor qualifying and grab a number of seconds, thirds and fourths so I think we couldn’t ask more for a new team on the road.”
           

It’s been a tough series and any number of cars could have won on any given night. The team can walk away with its head held high at what they have achieved but as they say ‘It aint over yet’. Johnson and the HM Racing team have confirmed that they will return to Western Australia for the Krikke Boys Shootout on February 27 & 28. Nothing would finish the year off better than to take home a $20,000 payday and become the first American to claim this prestigious crown.

For More On Jason Johnson visit www.hmracing.com

HM Racing is proudly supported by: Haynes Mechanical, HM Components, Deans Autoglass Mackay, Pro Shocks, Vortex Wings, KSE, Kenny's Components, FK Rod Ends, Buttlerbuilt, BMRS, Crow Enterprizes, Performance Power Works, Lee, FSR Products, Ben Cook, BCM Motorsports Marketing & Promotions.

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