CHICAGO — One of Chicagoland’s best, Erik Johnson, passed away in Arizona on Sept. 24 at the age of 92. Johnson won just more than 90 feature races at O’Hare, including the track’s O’Hare American 500 in 1966 in a 1964 Chevy convertible. Before trying his luck on paved tracks, Johnson raced and won at a number of local dirt tracks including Santa Fe Park Speedway, Wilmot (Wis.) Speedway and on the dirt at Waukegan Speedway. Johnson wheeled one of Roy and Reno Martinelli’s early racing creations to feature wins in 1955 at Santa Fe and won four more in 1956 and two in 1957 at the Track of Clay. After O’Hare Stadium closed, Johnson raced at the newly paved Waukegan Speedway and Rockford Speedway. Johnson closed out his racing career at the Rockford in the early 1970s.

Follow MotorMouth on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•