The Vision Airlines driver pushed his Ford Fusion to the sweep against 24 car field. The wins were his eighth and ninth in 16 events at Irwindale this season. If you factor in Johnsons teammate Dusty Davis, the Vision Air team now has won 12 of the 16 features for a .750 batting average at the California track!

The 1st Pepsi Super Late Model feature got off to a rough start when it took several minutes just to complete the first lap. After three collisions, a pair of double-file restarts and finally a single-file restart, the race finally got going. The rest of the race was at a quicker pace and included plenty of side by side action and passing. VAR driver Justin Johnson started fourth and quickly pulled to the rear bumper of leader Andy Allen. After chasing Allen for the first 30 laps Johnson moved inside for the lead. For the next 5 laps Johnson and Allen swapped the lead until Johnson made a very calculated move with a set up – look on the high side and a pass a lap later down low. Allen got loose the next lap and spun bringing out a yellow. Johnson won by quarter second over a quickly closing Ryan Partridge, Jason Patison, and Toyota All-Star Showdown sensation Sergio Pena.

In the second Super Late Model 40 lapper Johnson and Pena shared the front row in a five-car inverted start. Johnson led early in the outside groove until Andy Allen passed Johnson on the inside on lap 4. Johnson and Allen battled until lap 10 when Johnson got the lead all to himself. Justin clicked off steady laps as he had opened up a healthy lead until his VAR Ford Fusion developed a vibration under braking at the turn entry. Johnson said he had plenty of room so he backed his pace down a little to save the car. When Johnson backed down his pace it made the finish a little tighter allowing King to cut the lead to ten yards at the flag. Johnson’s VAR Teammate Dusty Davis came home forth in his backup ride.

In Victory Circle Justin thanked team owner Steve Acor and crew chief Chuck Wahl. “My Vision Airlines Ford Fusion was good in the first race and even better in the second race. When I got out front, I would cruise and when they catch up I go again,” he said. He also said his goal is the first championship for the Las Vegas-based Vision Aviation team and with only four races remaining in the 20-race season. Johnson has increased his point lead from 48 to a healthy 64 points over VAR teammate Dusty Davis.

At this point it looks like a two horse, race and the 2 horses are black with Vision Airlines on the quarter panels…

By JAN HOGAN
VIEW STAFF WRITER

Now that he’s out of high school, Dusty Davis is on track to his dream career. The 17-year-old Summerlin resident’s goal is to compete in NASCAR races, and he’s already making a name for himself.

On April 24, Davis won his race at the half-mile Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, Calif., a feat that earned him the title as the youngest driver to win a Super Late Model race at the track.

Toyota Speedway hosted the Pepsi One NASCAR Super Late Model Series on June 19. Davis and his Ford Fusion teammate, Justin Johnson, 24, competed in the Super Late Model class and together won both ends of the 15-car, twin-40-lap main events before an estimated crowd of 3,000. Johnson won the first, and Davis won the second.

But it is his win at the Mother’s Day Celebration race on May 8 at that same track that sticks out in his mind.

“Everyone had said, ‘He can’t win, he can’t win,’ ” Davis said. “All the doubters couldn’t say anything anymore.”

His two first-place wins that day were redemption after nearly a year of racing with a new vehicle. His old one caught fire last April at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s Bullring when another driver clipped him and a spark hit some fluid. Davis got out unharmed, but his race car was totaled. He had to start with another one. Tweaking that vehicle to be as good as the trashed car meant trial and error. It also meant lagging in the field.

“It took a whole year of struggling to get it up to where the other one was,” he said.

Now that the new car is up to speed, so to speak, he’s doing well in races again.

His mother, Sandy, attends every race. She said it’s hard to see her child racing at such speeds.

“I am known to pace at the top of the grandstands and to hide my eyes at times,” she said.

Davis packs a sinewy 125 pounds onto his 5-foot-5-inch frame. It’s an advantage in his sport.

“Bigger guys have more upper body weight,” he said. “But in racing, you want the weight to be as low as you can go.”

He compared the two body types to a high-profile SUV versus a low-to-the-ground sports car. It can make a difference when you’re racing as fast as 130 mph.

Davis has 75 career wins in his eight years of racing. They include capturing the Grand National Championship at age 13 in the Formula Y Junior division for 13- to 16-year-olds at the World Karting Association event in Santa Maria, Calif.

Davis won the 2004 World Karting Association Junior 1 Comer, Junior 1 Yamaha and the 2002 Junior Class 1 Championship with the Las Vegas Kart Club.

He said he looks up to NASCAR drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, but it’s Kurt Busch who has given him advice over the years. The main thing he imparted: don’t let little things rattle you.

“You have to ‘look at the big picture,’ ” Davis said.

Steven Acor is the owner and chief operating officer of Vision Airlines, Davis’ main sponsor. He said Davis has the mind-set necessary for racing.

“He is mature beyond his years in handling the car and the pressures of competition, and he is at a level at which he can compete and succeed,” Acor said.

Racing nearly every weekend meant missing some school, but Davis, who graduated this year from the Northwest Career and Technical Academy, 8200 W. Tropical Parkway, said his teachers were flexible and allowed him to do catch-up work.

“I was pretty much gone every Friday,” he said.

Davis is enrolled for the fall semester at the College of Southern Nevada. In his free time, he likes to work out at the gym and spend time with his friends.

Davis’ quest for speed began at age 3 when he got a motorized Jeep that he drove in front of his parents’ home. He kept bugging his parents for the chance to race. When he was about 7, his father, Tom, relented and took him to a now-defunct raceway in Sloan. Dusty got behind the wheel of a go-kart and took it on the track.

“I fell in love with it,” he said.

After that, his career choice was solidified in his mind. By age 8, he was competing in age-appropriate go-kart events and has been racing ever since. Next year, he can move up to 11/2-mile tracks and eventually to the 21/2-mile ones. In those races, he said, speeds can reach as fast as 200 mph.

The machines that propel a driver to reach such speeds are finely tuned, not to mention expensive.

According to Alan Mollet, the public relations manager for the race team, a Super Late Model car runs about $85,000; a K&N NASCAR West Series Car is about $120,000; and to race at NASCAR’s top level, the Sprint Cup Series, a car can cost as much as $300,000. Mollet said that for a team to race for an entire season, it can require a $13 million to $20 million sponsorship package.

Sandy Davis joked that when her son wins his first million-dollar prize, he owes his dad a classic car to replace the one he had to sell to support Davis and a vacation as well.

Davis expects to start racing in NASCAR events in spring 2012. For more information about his racing career, visit www.dustydavisracing.com.

Contact Summerlin and Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.

Photography by Jessica Ebelhar

In the NASCAR Pepsi One Super Late Model twin 40 lap features, the first main included a season-high car count of 23 cars and Andy Allen grabbed the checkered for his first ever Super Late Model feature win. VAR Driver Dusty Davis was the Fastest qualifier and started from pole in a backup car (the spare No. 90 Vision Airlines car renumbered 94 after Dusty wrecked his primary 94 Fusion during Friday night practice). Outside front row starter Andy Allen shot into the lead and held the point for the full 40 laps. Allen won over Luis Martinez with point leader and VAR driver Justin Johnson in his Vision Airlines 98 charging from his sixth starting spot to pickup third. VAR driver Davis piloted his backup Fusion to fourth.

In the second Pepsi Super Late Model feature, 21 cars took the green with a six-car inversion putting Travis Thirkettle and VAR driver Justin Johnson first and second with a charging Andy Allen starting third. Johnson grabbed the lead immediately over King and Allen. Allen took second on lap 3 and by lap 12 trailed Johnson by 5 car lengths. A pair of yellows on lap 13 bunched the field and Johnson chose the outside for both double-file restarts. On the restart, Allen out-dragged Johnson leaving the fourth turn and led laps 13-22. They ran side-by-side with Allen high and Johnson low until lap 23 when Johnson executed an inside pass in turn two and then opened half a straightaway advantage by the checkered flag. Johnson won his seventh SLM main this season in 14 races. After the win, Johnson told the crowd, “I thought I got jumped on that restart, but Chuck Wahl (crew chief) gave
me a good car and I got back by him.” Johnson’s VAR Teammate dusty Davis came home seventh after starting sixth as the FQ. If Johnson can win again and get his eighth Feature he will be in elite company tied with only three other Irwindale drivers to accomplish eight single-season feature victories.

Irwindale, CA., Jul. 10 – NASCAR Pepsi One Super Late Model points leader Justin Johnson started the 18-car race from row one and led all 50 laps Saturday night in the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale feature. The 24-year old Las Vegas resident drove one of two Vision Airlines Ford Fusions to his sixth main event victory this season in 12 races and fifth in the last six events. He increased his series point lead from 24 to 34 points over his Vision teammate. Johnson said, “We’re points racing now. I’ve won championships in every series I’ve run so far and the 2010 Irwindale Pepsi Super Late Model Championship is the goal.  We came here for points, but wins are always welcome.”

This weeks Pepsi Super Late Model feature started with a four-car inversion and based on qualifying times, fast qualifier Ryan Partridge started fourth. First-time Irwindale driver Zach Sawyers slotted in ninth but pulled in the infield prior to the green when something broke in the rear end of his car.  VAR’s Justin Johnson was the fourth quickest in qualifying which meant he would take the grid on the front row.  Johnson shot to the lead immediately and paced the field for the rest of the 50 lapper.  Travis Thirkettle and Randel King hung with Johnson for a while and the first three drivers ran nose-to-tail up to the mid race mark.  A mid race caution for a spin and contact mid pack bunched the field but Johnson held the lead throughout the race and stretched the margin from ten yards at lap 30, to 30 yards at the checkered flag. The best battles behind Johnson were between Thirkettle and King, who swapped second place four times.  Vision Airlines teammate Dusty Davis finished sixth in his 94 Vision Air – Fusion, but Dusty was fighting a push all night.

With a few weeks off, the Vision Airlines team will be able to regroup and prepare for the final four weeks of the season and come back fully stocked for an Irwindale Championship run.  But if I’m Justin’s crew, after taking 5 of the last six races and 6 of 12 for the season, I might be looking for the bottle of spray wax and that’s the only change I would make!

[View with PicLens]

Irwindale CA, July 2nd-3rd – The weekend for the Vision Airlines Racing team began with a tour of the K&N Factory and an autograph session and included a historic first ever – NASCAR hauler parade from Santa Anita to the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.

In conjunction with the annual NASCAR K & N Pro Series West “King Taco 200” at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, this years event included the first race car hauler parade in the track’s 12 year history and it was well received and is certain to be back on the agenda for 2011! The Vision Airlines Racing Team hauler took its place in the parade, which originated from the parking lot of world famous Santa Anita Park and ended as the team took their spot in the Irwindale pit area.  The Vision Airlines Team and Drivers also toured the K&N Factory in Riverside and were one of 3 teams to display their cars and rig on the K&N Factory grounds.  All of this pre-race promotion must have added to the interest in the race as the Irwindale Speedway was near capacity. The crowd was estimated at 6,800 which would have made it the largest of the year and even topped the 5,800 in the stands for the January 30 Toyota All-Star Showdown.

For the Saturday race, the VAR Teams returned to the track shortly after 8:00 am Saturday for a busy NASCAR schedule of race day activities.  Qualifying went well for Justin Johnson in the 97 VAR Impala putting him 4th in his first NASCAR K&N Pro Series Race.  Dusty had a slip on his first lap of qualifying that put him a little deeper in the field starting 20th.  Once the race got underway both drivers looked comfortable and made progress but Justin eventually slipped back a few spots, while Davis picked his way through the field getting to eighth and closing on his VAR teamate before the break.  With only a few laps to the break, Johnson spun and had to go to the back for the restart, but again started picking off cars.  When they finally stopped for the 100 lap break, Dusty was holding on to eighth and Justin had worked his way back into the top half of the field.  After the adjustments in the pits, the field restarted and for a short time Dusty and Justin looked like they were both headed for a top ten finish.  But Dusty’s 94 Impala was pushing and needed a long green to get the balance he needed.  Justin’s car was headed back to the front and he worked around teamate Davis, but his second half run was short lived as he passed the 17 and while moving high to set up for turn 1 slipped across the nose of the 17 car.  Justin spun and collected the 10 car behind the door ending his debut.  Dusty continued to pick off spots even with a pushing Impala and now running down on power as contact when he worked through the field crushed a noise deflector onto the headers.  Even down on power and fighting an ill handling car, Davis carefully raced his way back to eighth, giving a him a top ten in his debut against a very competitive West Series field!  All things considered the VAR team looked strong for their first outing in this new series, but later at the hotel the team had to end the weekend thinking about what might have been…  As they say – “That’s racing.”