I met Jim at a tractor pull when I was a young ag teacher at Blanchester. No, I met him and his brother Herb when I was a teen ager showing livestock at the Brown County Fair in the 60's. They had a Super 88 Diesel they campaigned and they beat a lot of big tractors even though a Super 88 was a big tractor to me in those days.
Jim had a 460 International he campaigned in the Ohio State Tractor Pullers Super Stock division. I saw him try and try and got to know him better. He bought an 806 and put a P pump and big injectors and lines on it and needed more turbocharger. I studied turbochargers and got a dealership just so I could buy one of the first 3LM Schwitzer turbochargers to mount on the 806.
We could pin the M&W dynamometer at 325 HP in the early 70's. That was big HP out of a farm tractor. He let me drive it in the 9000 lb class and we both drove it where they allowed two drivers.
I remember one night at Owensville and one night at Lynchburg we won the 5, 7, 9, 12 and 13,500 pound classes between my 88 and his 806. We might have done it at Hillsboro and we almost pulled it off at Georgetown. We could always compete with the shiny tractors with our old paid for equipment. I won the state points race one year and he did too.
We drifted away over the years but always stayed in touch. No matter what we were doing, we could find each other at Bowling Green. His son Jimmy Junior stopped by the other day to say Hi and now today he had to stop again to tell me the bad news. I asked him how he was doing and we talked about the grieving process. We all grieve differently but we all must go through it to have any kind of healing.
RIP, Jim Johnson, and thank you for the great ride full of interesting stories.
Ed Winkle
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