Johnson Switches Wheels and Wins : Off-road: Former motocross champion trucks to his first victory in race at Coliseum.

Rick Johnson found it just as easy and just as exciting to win in the Coliseum in a truck as on a motorcycle.

The former world-class motocross champion from Encinitas scored his first victory in the Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix series before 27,016 Saturday by coming from behind in his Chevrolet mini-pickup to defeat series leader Rod Millen.

It was only the fourth start for Johnson, 28, who turned to racing trucks for Jon Nelson of Riverside after a wrist injury forced him to retire from motocross following a career than included seven national championships and numerous international race victories. Two of Johnson’s record 28 Supercross victories came in the Coliseum.

Johnson, who was fast qualifier Friday, doggedly followed Millen’s Toyota for 10 laps before making his move on the next to last lap over a high-speed track laid out around the perimeter of the football field. After squeezing past Millen, winner of three of four races this season, at the start of lap 11, Johnson held him off for the final lap to take his first checkered flag as a truck driver.

“It wasn’t like something I planned in advance,” an elated Johnson said of his daring pass. “Rod is the driver I tried to model my style after. He is not a dirty driver. He is really clean and always seems to have the right line.

“I followed him for 10 laps, waiting for him to make a mistake but he never made one. Then I decided to follow some advice given to me by my Chevrolet teammate, Larry Ragland. He told me to take the outside line, even though it was longer, because it gave you more momentum going into the straightaways.

“I decided that was my only chance. I took the outside line going up through the (peristyle) arches and sure enough, Millen was ahead of me as we came back to the floor, but I had the momentum to pull alongside. I had to be careful because I was on probation (for running into Walker Evans in Dallas), but I had the inside line and I just kept the throttle down until I edged past him.”

Johnson’s victory was only the third for Chevrolet in stadium off-road history. Danny Thompson, who may have been making his final appearance in a truck race, won the other two. Thompson, who finished last, plans to try other forms of racing after losing his factory sponsorship.

Millen, an international rally champion when not racing trucks, had more on his mind than racing. His son, Connor William, was born with Epstein’s disease, a heart malfunction, and is at Loma Linda University Medical center waiting for a donor for a heart transplant. All of the Grand National trucks flew a blue ribbon during Saturday’s program as a reminder.

The program had a difficult time getting under way as the first truck heat had to be restarted twice. Once it began, Millen and Ivan Stewart, his Toyota teammate, finished one-two, as they have most of the season.

Roger Mears, in a Nissan, had the misfortune to come up on a stalled truck and crashed into it, knocking the left front wheel off and damaging the suspension.

“There was a truck in front of me, blocking my view, and I didn’t see that someone had rolled,” Mears said. “I was on the gas and went right into him. It broke the shock, the spindle, the sway bar and I don’t know what else. My biggest concern was finding all the broken parts.”

Apparently he found them, because when the second heat started, Mears moved quickly past front-row starters Jerry Whelchel and Brian Stewart and won after trading the lead with Stewart. The victory was made easier when Ikuo Hanawa of Japan flipped his Jeep in the peristyle and took five cars out of contention.

Joe Price, a 46-year-old paraplegic from Covina driving a hand-controlled car, won his heat in the superlites class--his first victory since joining the Mickey Thompson series three years ago. Price lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle racing accident.

Marty Hart beat Frank Arciero Jr. to the wire in the Super 1600 final after series leader Mitch Mustard ran his car into the hay bales while leading. Jerry Whelchel, driving a new Chubasco, finished third--the first time he has finished a Coliseum race since the class was introduced in 1985.