Andrew Johnson had one of the most interesting weekends of any Radial vs The World competitor at No Mercy 8 in 2017. Why? It was the first time he had ever bolted radials to his car that normally runs in the Top Sportsman division of places like the NHRA and PDRA. The Johnson family has some bad ass door slammers as Andrew’s dad Lester has a ’55 Chevy that runs in the 5s. Like his dad, the car is powered by an alky burning, ProCharger equipped, 521ci Brad Anderson hemi engine. Andrew’s only stated goal at SGMP was turning a three second pass in his awesome 1957 Chevrolet. Boy did he try! The car ran multiple 4.01 second runs over the course testing, qualifying, and ultimately eliminations. There was also some drama for the kid as well.
This video from CompetitionPlusTV captures that drama as Johnson came off the starting line and drove into a wheelie. For a car equipped with a wheelie bar, this is no big deal…except when the bar fails to stop the climb. As you will see, Johnson’s car shot skyward, briefly threw all four wheels off the ground and then landed with a groan inducing four corner smash job that had us thinking the ’57 was done for the weekend. Nope. Despite the hard impact on landing, Johnson came back and the furious ’57 ran some of its quickest elapsed times AFTER the thing landed like someone threw it out the window of a sky scraper.
One of the coolest things at these races is seeing guys who are giving hardcore radial racing a shot for the first time. Smart dudes like Johnson accept the challenge head on and he really impressed some people at this race by putting forth the effort he did.
There’s nothing else like Radial vs The World in the halls of drag racing. If you have never seen it in person, you best get your ass to Lights Out 9 in February.
