Fans could be forgiven for thinking that the East to West Racing team didn’t do much last season, however they couldn’t be further from the truth with a complete season recorded in the books, it’s just that it took Mick Johnson & the team until late in the season before achieving the results they expected after a frustrating run of car handling concerns & crashes tested their resolve.

With lots of hard work from the crew, some supporters and the driver Mick Johnson, the car is now well & truly sorted and ready for the biggest race of the season for the team, the Shinju Challenge in the first week of September.

After picking up an ex Chris Hayden VE Commodore from Hayden Race Cars back in February 2014 Johnson & his crew changed it and fitted it to suit what best suited his driving style, Trev from Team Banjup Racing spent hours fabricating front & rear end suspension components & finishing off the # 32 car & the car was ready for the GWN Series in November at Moora Speedway.

Moora wasn’t the best start it could have been for the team with steering issues, a tyre getting cut and going down & a shock bending, the team failed to finish.

Moving on, round two of the series was cancelled & the team then ran round three at Collie Speedway where they picked up the first win in their latest weapon in a heat race along with a second in another. Driveshaft failure ended the night without a feature result for the team.

A crash at round four in Narrogin didn’t help the team. Steering issues at the front end of the car resulted in Johnson tangling with Ayden Trewern, riding a wheel breaking his rack & although the team got the car out for the feature, the car was real bad to hold onto.

A trip to Bunbury for round five was shortened by the promoters at Bunbury due to it also being a Sprintcar show & time getting away from them. Two heats for the Modifieds & Johnson suffered yet more steering issues.

After changing the front end to get ready for Albany & round six of the series the team were looking to just finish a complete meeting at this stage. A new problem arose with overheating issues plaguing the team who once again didn’t finish the feature. On the bright side, they did make the pole shuffle though!

The seventh round at Margaret River was no better after again changing the steering, this time a driver error occurred and Johnson clipped the front straight wall and broke the front right hub & didn’t have a spare to replace it. Game over for the team.

At this point after seven meetings and still not completing one feature race, the morale was at rock bottom & the team thought about not running the WA title at Carnarvon, however since the transporter was heading in the direction of Broome where Johnson is from, they soon gave in & gave it a shot.

Practising for the title, Johnson was very happy for the first time all season with the car. Some shock adjustments improved handling dramatically, & come heat time the team had a good car & confidence was growing.

Results included a fourth in heat one, a win in the second, a second in the third and another win in the fourth to close out the results qualifying the team in third place on the grid for the title race.

It wasn’t all smiles though as water had shown up in the breather in the motor, the team decided to chemi weld the car to start the final.

The final started well with Johnson jumping to third and running behind Mick Hamon and Trewern. Car felt good and the top three had put a gap on the field, Johnson had an oil problem and was getting sprayed with oil but kept going as the gauges were normal.

At the 17 lap mark, the right rear driveshaft let go and ended Johnson’s night when a top three spot look assured. Trewern went on to win. We were a little unhappy but felt we had finally turned the corner with the car.

The team then headed back to Broome where some research & development could be done running the car at the local Broome Speedway shows. Johnson & the team played around with combinations on the springs & shocks & improved the car over four meetings. Johnson then had the spare motor fitted prior to running at Karratha heading off on a 1600km round trip alone to win all four heats and the feature, finally finishing a full race show!

After the show at Karratha, Johnson’s club at Broome announced that the Shinju Modified Challenge was to become a 5k to win event with 13k all up in prize money so Johnson hurriedly sent the good engine away to Mendes Race Engines in Perth who found the problem that engine had been having, fixed it and then returned it back to Johnson in 4 days. Johnson was wrapt with the work at Mendes. “I could not be more delighted with the service the lads at Mendes Race Engines gave me."

Continuing on Johnson said "They know this home event means everything to me in front of our fans and family & they found a way to make sure they could get the engine done and back to me so I could continue to work on the car.”

To bring us up to date, Johnson on the weekend of 22nd of August had the engine in the car for the ‘Prelude to the Shinju’ race meeting and after placing first, second and third in heats started alongside Blake Watson in the twenty lap final and went on to win his second race meeting of the season.

This brings us to now, the Shinju Challenge, up to fourteen of West Australia’s best will be in town for the 5k to win Shinju in a two night battle for the money. Johnson’s crew will come up from Perth to join him & tidy up the car & ready for the 4th & 5th of September to take on the state’s best.

Johnson wanted to thank a few sponsors for their support this season. “This year Sponsor wise we retained support from Advanced Electrical Equipment Broome, Jason has been behind me my whole career and for that I am most thankful. So has Warns at Stickemon Signs in Yarrawonga, always printing and designing my signs at a minutes notice!”

Johnson went on to also thank Trev and Di Team Banjup Racing for always helping and building the car, Alpha Plant Maintenance In Perth for painting the car, East To West Data & Electrical Services & the family BJ and the kids for putting up with the big hours and time away too.

Leading into the new 15/16 season East to West Racing have just recently purchased the Ex - Brett Barron Race transporter & will do the complete GWN series kicking off in November, whilst also looking at the possibility of an eastern states trip if it fits in with business commitments & some support can be secured to help out.

East to West Racing thanks the following supporters:
Advanced Electrical Equipment – Broome
Stickemon Signs – Yarrawonga
Team Banjup Racing
Alpha Plant Maintenance
East to West Data & Electrical Services

Written by
Dean Thompson
DMT Sports Media
for East to West Racing

Mick Johnson with the beast

Johnson the winner