Former Super Vee champion Herm Johnson has passed away at the age of 63. After winning the SCCA National Championship in Super Vee at the 1976 Runoffs, Johnson moved into the professional ranks, contesting both the SCCA’s road-circuit-based Bosch/VW Super Vee championship and USAC’s oval-centric Mini Indy series, winning nine races over the next six seasons to rank 4th on the category’s all-time win list. He shared the 1977 USAC Mini Indy title with Tom Bagley and finished championship runner-up in the SCCA series for three straight seasons between 1977 and 1979.
He moved up into Indycars after that, most notably driving for fellow Wisconsinite John Menard (above, IMS Photo), but never enjoyed the same level of success despite being a regular top-10 finisher. His best Indycar result was a 6th-place finish at Atlanta in 1982. A big crash during practice for the 1986 Indy 500 left him with broken legs and spine, and put an end to his professional driving career.
He then ran a successful custom painting business, Just Herm Designs, doing helmets, cars and motorcycles, as a way to keep his hand in the sport. He also worked as a driving instructor at Brainerd, where he surely knew the best way around, having scored three of the nine wins of his Super Vee career at the Minnesota circuit.
To Herm’s family and many friends in the sport, Vintage Racecar extends its deepest sympathies.
