Baldwin Park, CA (April 27, 2011) – Rod Johnson Jr (RJ) has accomplished much in his young racing career. He currently leads the Super Late Model division at the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale with two dominating wins, as well as earning himself the pole positions for those races. Before that, RJ, the son of the first Toyota Speedway at Irwindale Super Late Model champion Rod Johnson, won the Super Truck and Late Model championships in 2009 and 2010 respectively. This weekend the Canyon Country, CA resident will team up with Position One Motorsports’ alum Luis Martinez Jr and the Sunrise Ford team, owned by Bob Bruncati, to make his NASCAR K&N Pro Series West debut at the Miller Motorsports Park. This new endeavor also marks RJ’s first foray into road course racing.
Rod Johnson Jr (RJ) - Position One Motorsports
With series regular, and 2010 Sunoco Rookie of the Year, Luis Martinez Jr as his teammate, RJ will be aboard the #9 Sunrise Ford/Lucas Oil Ford entry and hoping that his circle track success can be carried over into the road racing discipline. To date RJ has never raced on a road course, but inexperience hasn’t deterred him in the past. With only 4 years of racing under his belt, the 21 year old has already achieved two professional championships. Despite the impressive resume though RJ understands that this race is not going to be a walk in the park. “I’m really excited to get to start my first NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race, but I’m also nervous about my first road race. It’s a complete learning curve and I’m just looking to complete all the laps and hope for a top-20 finish,” states Johnson. In addition to the Miller race RJ is also planning on running a few more selected races for the Sunrise Ford team later in the year.
To prepare for his debut the RJ spent a couple of days last week with the Sunrise Ford crew, and along with his teammate Martinez, RJ had a successful testing session in which he was able to run the newly configured 2.2-mile road course. “The test at Miller went very well for both RJ and I. I have a lot of faith that both Sunrise Ford cars will do very well at the race. RJ has shown a substantial amount of improvement since the first time he tested at Buttonwillow, just a few weeks ago. I can’t wait to see how he does in the race,” exclaims Martinez. For RJ’s part the time spent on the track was beneficial in preparing him for his first road race. “I felt our test went really well! I learned so much throughout the day and I owe all my improvements to my team and teammate Luis Jr. They have been helping me all throughout our tests,” says Johnson.
The action begins on Saturday at 8:45 a.m. for the practice session, followed by Coors Light Pole Qualifying at 1:30 p.m. and the race starts at 4:30 p.m.
ABOUT POSITION ONE MOTORSPORTS
Based in Baldwin Park, CA, Position One Motorsports enters its 4th year of stock car competition at the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. In the past 3 years of competition, the team has garnered a Championship in the S2 division in 2009, 1 win and multiple top-10s with drivers Mackena Bell, Sergio Pena, Randel King, and Luis Martinez Jr. For 2011, Rod Johnson Jr and Taylor Miinch will pilot the team’s Super Late Model and Late Model division cars respectively. You can follow Position One Motorsports on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PositionOne and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PositionOne. You can also visit the team’s website at www.position-one.com
- Position One Motorsports, Press Release
