Ted Johnson's Story
In 17 years, Ted Johnson has built the World of Outlaws into
the largest sprint car sanctioning body in the United States. The Skoal Outlaw Series is the fourth-largest
racing series in the world.
Johnson was born on February 5, 1934, in Beloit, WI. Growing up in Wisconsin, he started attending races as soon as he was able to walk because his father raced motorcycles. Johnson tried his hand at midget racing as a teen-ager, but that was a short-lived adventure.
Johnson bounced around motorsports for a while before leaving his full-time job as a china salesman and founding the World of Outlaws in 1978. In fact, Johnson was away from his then-Wichita Falls, TX, home, running a World of Outlaws event when a tornado destroyed much of the town.
Today, Johnson and his wife Stacy, the behind-the-scenes driving force behind the series' success, live in Plano, TX, four miles from World of Outlaws headquarters.
During its early years, the World of Outlaws brought about a metamorphosis in sprint car racing. Heavy, non-winged cars were raced for peanuts before evolving into the strong, light-weight, high-tech, winged warriors sprinters are today. When Johnson said the World of Outlaws would run winged races exclusively in 1984, his decision was based on extending the lives of the cars themselves. It was later determined that winged sprinters were far safer than their non-winged counterparts. The advent of the 25-square-foot top wing also enhanced the marketing of the World of Outlaws, as the sprinters started resembling flying billboards.
While the purists screamed that putting a wing on a sprinter gave the driver a crutch, the racing skill of World of Outlaws pilots has done nothing but soar. It's surprising when a World of Outlaws driver competing in a non-winged sprint race doesn't win.
Racers who compete on the Skoal Outlaw Series tour are, without a doubt, the most talented racers in the world.
Through his direction, the World of Outlaws has helped the Knoxville Nationals gain immense popularity as well. After organizing taped-delayed national telecasts of sprint car racing's crown jewel on The Nashville Network for eight years, TNN is televising the Nationals' championship program "Live in '95."
The Associated Press, the world's premier wire service, started distributing World of Outlaws news to newspapers and electronic media around the globe this year. More than 16,000 media outlets worldwide - 1,556 daily newspapers and 6,000 radio television stations in the United States and 8,500 foreign newspapers - subscribe to the Associated Press.
Through his efforts with the World of Outlaws, Johnson is largely responsible for the increasing growth and prosperity of sprint car racing.
