Johnny or Buck was a very good friend to me going back to 1969.  Back in the early days he was known as "Johnny Buck" and may have used that name when he raced at Southside Speedway for three years.  Records for that time when Johnny raced against Roy Hendricks, Ted Hairfield, Runt Harris, Sonny Hutchins, and Al Grinnan are scarce today.  Johnny never had the equipment of the other teams and didn't have a sponsor.  One thing Johnny had was his intelligence and very high energy.  He ordered  a new high performance short block for a 375 hp Corvette and did his modifications to it. That original engine which was a 327 stayed together for three years and Johnny then ran it on the street before eventually selling it. Johnny believed in turning an engine extremely high and also using a very low gear.  People at Southside Speedway commented on the awesome performance of Johnny car on the straightaways, however his car was difficult to handle in the curves.  A local race owner wanted to build Johnny a race car, but he couldn't afford it and had to give up racing.  There were some people who thought Johnny could have had a future in NASCAR because of his driving skills when he was young, but he stopped his racing career including his drag strip racing when he got married.

Johnny went from racing to building the large three store house in Cumberland for his wife and two sons.  Johnny had many skills from being an expert mechanic to building houses.  He seemed to be able to fix anything and could build custom vehicles from scratch.  Johnny did have a passion for guns and hunting.  He was an excellent marksman with his rifles with scopes and also his pistols.  

I did have the opportunity to compete against Johnny in many friendly shootting competitions at his home in the 1970's.  Johnny and I had done a lot of shotgun shooting with buckshot..  We would compete in contests to see who's gun would pattern buckshot the best.  It was Johnny's Remingtons versus my Brownings.  It was usually close except for the one 3 inch Magnum 32 inch Browning that had an unusually tight choke and would shoot Number 4 Buck very well.  Johnny won the contests between his prized 6MM heavy barrel Remington and my 25-06 heavy barrel Remington.  I was able to hold my own somewhat against Johnny when we shot 22 caliber pistols.  The only reason for this was that I had a Browning Medalist target pistol with weights and adjustable trigger which was an unfair advantage, but it never bothered Johnny. .  

I had the unique opportunity to be a small part of Johnny's life when he decided to get into mud racing in 1989.  It is not surprising that Johnny did well and won 5 trophies because he had won many when he was into drag racing.  Johnny was able to observe what other were doing wrong in mud bogging and make adjustments.  Johnny was one of those who people who they say didn't need to go to college.

I feel very fortunate to have known Johnny and shared so many good memories with him in the past.  I do miss his wonderful spirit a great deal and it is very painful when you think about him the way many of us knew him in the past when he was younger.  Johnny was very good to me and such a great friend!
                                                                                                                                                                                J. Pruett.