Photo credit: Chris Graves/Max Cackle Photos

Spencer “Cornbread” Johnson won the big tire class at the Doomsday No Prep in 2015 and was poised to win big at Redemption 4.0 in January of this year. Johnson was on a winning streak in no prep racing heading into the event, but it all came to a halt there when he endured a horrific accident, when at about the 330-foot mark, he got sideways and flipped in the shutdown area. Luckily, he walked away with no injuries, but the potent race car, a 1968 Camaro with a Morgan and Son’s 632-inch big block Chevy with a pair of nitrous fogger systems, was totaled.

Three weeks later, with the help of Brink Racecraft and Roy Upshaw “Taco Casa”, Cornbread had the original big block engine and transmission sitting in a new Pontiac Firebird Pro Stock-style chassis. The road to recovery from such a horrific crash can be daunting, but the decision to get back in the car was easy for Spencer, as he has been racing for many years. Naturally, he was heartbroken over losing the car that he’d owned for several years. The connection a racer has with a car they’re familiar with can be a key to their winning confidence. Starting with a new car can feel like starting over, but the comeback for Spencer looks to be promising with “Cornbread” 2.0.

Spencer is planning to run the new car in grudge, no prep, and radial tire racing events. Cornbread’s comeback commenced on March 18 at the North Star Big Tire Shootout in Denton, Texas, where he reached the final round but came up short of the win. With a couple of more tweaks to the new car and gaining familiarity with it, it will only get better. With a whole new determination, Cornbread is poised to be a real threat in the no prep scene in 2016.

Photo credit: Chris Graves/Max Cackle Photos