FLORENCE, Ky. — Johnny Stokes, also known as “Dr. Dirt,” reeled in another career accolade last weekend, as the man who has won more than 500 races was inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame.
Stokes, 70, owns the Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus. He bought the facility in 2009 after a long career of racing and promoting.
Racing isn’t just a passion, it’s an obsession that was passed down to Stokes.
“My daddy was racing when I was little, and he took me to my first race when I was six weeks old, I think,” Stokes said. “That was ‘53, and he quit racing before I knew anything about it, but he took me to races his whole life. I got in it and started racing in 1970 and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Stokes didn’t start racing himself until he was a teenager, but his interest in cars in general took off.
“I was fascinated by cars,” he said. “I used to work in a junkyard checking out parts and stuff, and I helped out working on race cars. I just liked tinkering with cars, and that’s really how it got started.”
Stokes’ hobby grew into something bigger, and it’s what he had always hoped would happen. After years of balancing racing and building cars with different jobs, he eventually got the chance to turn professional and began racing in circuits across the country.
“I worked a lot, early in life, with equipment and stuff to put in work lines and sewer systems and stuff like that,” Stokes said. “I hated getting up early, but I loved my racing. I would stay up all night working on my car and then get up and go to work. I wanted to make it so I only had to race, and I finally did. I started racing full-time in 1986, and that’s just what I love to do.”
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Stokes traveled across the country racing and building a reputation for himself. It eventually led him back to the South permanently in 2001 when he began balancing racing and working as a racing promoter, securing sponsorships and working to bring various racing series’ to local tracks. He started promoting for the Columbus Speedway and then bought “The Mag” in 2009.
“I would never have gotten to meet all these people in my life if it weren’t for racing,” he said, reflecting on over 50 years of work behind the wheel.
Winning is fun, and you don’t need to tell Johnny about that feeling, but the thrill was something more. It’s something he’s chased since he first began racing as a teenager, and something he is still chasing at the age of 70. In fact, he raced just a couple of weeks ago.
“It’s just an adrenaline rush,” he said. “It’s about the challenge. In racing you get outrun more than you win, but that makes it special when you do win. I’m still going at 70, so I guess it’s been a pretty good deal.”
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