SIGNATURE PROFILES
©1999-2001 Dwight Drum

"No such thing as bad win or a good loss."

"I only work half days…usually 6 to 6."

Photos © 2002 Gary Larsen and Dwight Drum

Observation of Warren Johnson "The Professor" reveals methods that cause success. Johnson has a work ethic that defies time clocks. He is a driver and a worker, a winner and an engineer, but if you could get behind the ropes with Johnson you would learn that words like coordinator and communicator also define his skills. Champions often explain the way to winning with clarity because they always have plans and alternatives. Few champions explain winning ways better than Johnson. It's no wonder his sponsor, GM Performance Parts, has supported him for so long.

Work hard. Work smart. Johnson exudes that philosophy. He carved a few moments at the end of his work day for us…moments for more work so we could bring you his interview…

DWIGHT CHATS WITH…WARREN JOHNSON

"Two hundred miles per hour is nothing compared to the speed of sound."

DOB: July 7, 1943
Birth Town: Virginia, Minnesota
Home Town: Buford, Georgia

"It's scarier on the highway watching some of those lunatics drive."

"Tenacity."

"Making a living and having fun while you do it."

"I don't have heroes per se, there are certain people I admire for the way they conduct themselves. Heroes are a figment of one's imagination. If you stop and think about it, you're taking a particular trait from someone else and admiring else and admiring it or trying to adapt it to your own personality. I can't say that is really right, because if you have heroes, you take all of their defects along with whatever you like about them."

"Absolutely. It's better than the alternative."

"Not a lot. Very few people, less than ten per cent in this country actually enjoy what they do for a living. That's why I never look at a time clock. I've never had a problem. All I've ever had is opportunities."

"In a racecar…yeah."

"My hobby is work. I'm one of the very few individuals who enjoy what they are doing, so my hobby is work."

"Certainly. I can rule out professional football or professional basketball…I don't meet the height criteria, but I have seen some place kickers my size so I guess I could compete there. I'm a very competitive person, and I feel any competitive individual barring any physical abnormalities could compete in any sport they want. Any quote-unquote race car driver could go drag racing or round racing, any kind of racing, as long as the interest is there. If the interest is there and you become successful."

"My mind…I've got to race the car."

"No."

"No. What I see I eat."

"Honesty."

"I very seldom get frustrated, because I take an analytical approach. I probably get a little boisterous at times, but it's not frustration."

"No. It's a job to me. I guess I've always had OJT (on-the-job training) so therefore I just go about my work as usual."

"Oh, probably getting married."

"I never unwind. I stay at the same pace. I always space myself. A lot of people attack this sport, especially this fast sport, with much intensity and basically burn out in a very short period of time. They were very successful during that short period of time, but they burn out. It's that way in this sport and other sports. If you heavily concentrate on one particular factor, you can't be effective over the long haul. Since I have to make a living at this before I retire, I guess I better pace myself."

"More could be done to operate this sport or any other form of sports like a business. When you operate it as a business, and the competitors are included in the business plan, then in the long run everybody becomes successful. The success of the sanctioning body and the competitors brings in the sponsors and the whole sport evolves."

"I pace myself and I don't dwell on any particular area. I try to cover all the areas. If I can't solve a particular problem, I know where to find the people who can do it."

"I'm a defensive driver. I'm also firmly convinced 50 percent of the people should not have a driver's license. Too many have a license to kill."

"I don't worry about anything. If you're worried about one particular thing that means you're not concentrating on other areas. That will bite you in the butt."

"You learn from all your mistakes. I can't pinpoint one, but when you are in this business you're not going to have success 100 percent of the time given the level of competition out there today. If you have 20 percent success in research and development you'd better learn from your mistakes, because you've probably had negative results from 80 percent of your experiments. You have to look for answers…was that an error in thinking, an error in preparation or what? You can definitely learn form your mistakes."

"Family is most important. We have a lot of trying times in this type of sport. The pacing, the financing, a lot of elements are involved in putting this together. You have to have the people around you to support you."

"In this business organizational traits are probably first and foremost. You have to be an inspirational person to compete these days. No one-man-bands out there. Given that, you have to have the ability to inspire the people that surround you and convince them you are going in the right direction. I've admired Vince Lombardi for his tenacity and ability to motivate and inspire people. I learned early on that you can't do everything yourself any more. You have to surround yourself with the best possible people for your operation."

"I looked to motorsports as way of making a living. In the early '70s round track racing in the northern part of the country was not economically feasible to make a good living. Drag racing was more lucrative at that time. Had I been operating down South at that time, I probably would have been involved in round track racing. It was a matter of where I grew up and what I was exposed to."

"Nothing."

"Everybody is different…just think how boring this world would be if every body was the same. No sense in getting up in the morning, because you'd know what the outcome was going to be because everybody operated the same way you do. That's what's unique about us. Everybody has a different perspective of what they're doing, why they are here and what they enjoy. Everybody is different."

"What drives me is to be successful at what I'm doing. Success is like beauty…in the eye of the beholder, so my level of success at this business is eyed differently by other people. What they think I don't really know and I don't really care.

"I don't think we're looking at legend status by any stretch of the imagination, but tenacity is No.1 and I refuse to accept failure."

"I don't get a rush out of driving a racecar whatsoever. It's no different than making a piece on a lathe. It's a job, that's all it is. Some people get a high off it and that's good. Mine is just a different approach."

"Oh Absolutely! Why something fails. Why something succeeds. I want to know as much about why something runs good as well as why it runs bad. Obviously, if you can figure that out, you can make it better."

"I don't have a gripe about life at all." Johnson thought a moment. "Probably taxes."

"Two hundred miles per hour is nothing compared to the speed of sound. It's the territory we are dealing with and if you can't run 200 mph you can't be competitive. If you have confidence in the people working with you, confidence in the preparation and everything including the tractor-trailer that hauls the race car to the race track, there's nothing scary about it. It's scarier on the highway watching some of those lunatics drive."

"The best win looking at the big picture, I believe it was in 1999 with the Superman logo on the car. It was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity and to win given that opportunity, I would say it was the best win I ever had. I guess you also have to remember there is no such thing as bad win or a good loss."

"I guess I never wanted to race. It was a way of making a living. Racing was just a part of it."

"No."

"I've seen a few bonehead stunts by both the sanctioning body and racers and it surprise me that we're as successful at what we do."

"I probably have better car control than others on the track. I was born and raised in northern Minnesota and did a lot of driving on icy roads. You learn car control. That's why I believe I could have been successful at round track racing."

"I don't have any regrets at all. I view everything in life that happens as an opportunity. I'm an optimist not a pessimist."

"As long as I continue to be relatively successful at what I'm doing, I'll continue what I'm doing. I certainly have my fingers in other opportunities, but I'm not going to talk about that now."

"I don't think there was any magic. As I've said I learned to pace myself a long time ago and you know...I only work half days…usually 6 to 6."

"I've never taken a look at myself. How do you rate yourself against other people when you don't know the gradient? I'm just a schmuck making a living at the race track."

"I've said it all in the interview and I think you've covered it all. I'm sure you've got a good barometer of what my personality is like." (Our additional comment…"We sure have.")

So many words describe the complex personality of Warren Johnson and most of them are as active as he is. Johnson has said, "My hobby is work." We would add that his habit is winning. We could search for more defining traits, but as Johnson said at the end of our interview, "You've got a good barometer of what my personality is like." So we have, and we chose no single word that he hasn't already acquired in his long quest to be the best. We learned more about why Warren Johnson is…