Jeff Johnson poses with his girlfriend Jessica Barkdull and his 2014 Mustang after winning the Hoosier No Prep Drag Racing Series Banger (stick shift) Division for the second consecutive year.
Submitted photo
After winning the Hoosier No Prep drag racing series in 2022, Jeff Johnson had plans for a repeat in 2023.
The Columbus resident won three of the seven races in the series, and once again this year, that was more than enough to bring home the championship.
“I definitely felt a sense of accomplishment,” Johnson said. “There’s starting to be some stronger competition that’s joining our series, so the need to go faster is definitely there.”
Johnson reaches speeds of about 110 mph on the 1/8-mile sprint in his street car, a 2014 Mustang. He is building a 2000 Mustang to use solely for drag racing.
“It’s been modified, but it’s perfectly streetable,” Johnson said. “I can take it to Dairy Queen for the Cruise-In. I can drive it to Oklahoma if I want. It’s not dedicated to racing. There are some cars out there that are dedicated to racing, and I’m currently building one that is dedicated just for racing.”
In the Hoosier No Prep series, the “no prep” means no traction or adhesive is put on the track prior to competition. There are four categories — small tire, big tire, hard tire and stick shift — and Johnson competes in stick shift, which is called Banger.
This year, Johnson made the finals in six of the seven events and won at Wabash Valley Dragway, Salem Motorsports Park and Muncie Dragway. In last weekend’s finale at Wabash Valley Dragway, he was beaten by fellow Columbus resident Scott Barker in the finals.
Barker also won two races at Ohio Valley Dragway in Louisville this year. He also made finals there on Oct. 13 before it was rained out.
Scott Barker, center, poses with Eric Mackey, left, and Tammy Barker after winning a race at Ohio Valley Dragway in Louisville.
Submitted photo
Meanwhile, Edinburgh native and Franklin resident Ryan Betz won the first and last race last weekend at Wabash Valley Dragway in the Hard Tire category.
Johnson, 33, attended Columbus North High School for three years before home-schooling as a senior. He began racing a couple years after that.
“I was real big into sports in middle school, and my friends kind of pulled me away from that,” Johnson said. “I got in to cars and working and working on cars was more of a priority than sports.”
Last summer, Johnson graduated from IUPUC with a degree in business management. He works as a service diagnostics engineer at Cummins.
Johnson began racing in a series at Muncie Dragway in 2015 and started the Hoosier No Prep series in 2022, when he won the title for the first time.
“I started out just at Brown County with my friends,” Johnson said. “I had a 98 Cobra back then, and as it progressed, I wanted to compete more.”
