When the doors of an elevator open, no one really knows exactly what’s going to happen. We all know what we expect to happen. But when NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Steve Johnson is involved, that skews the odds. 

In his 35-year career, Steve Johnson has been an undeniably zealous ambassador for drag racing and for his class and for his program. So of course, he thought nothing of rolling his motorcycle that weighs nearly 700 pounds and is close to eight feel long into the elevator of a swanky downtown Houston hotel and taking it up 28 floors for his show-and-tell props at a pre-race press conference for long-time sponsor Slick 50. That’s how he rolls. 

But what Johnson did Sunday in the final SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park was prove for the 10th time that he was more than a offbeat sideshow. He reminded everyone – for the 10th time – that he is a winner . . . against the best the class has to offer. 

On the Baytown, Texas, quarter-mile, capped a show-off week with a victorious 6.720-second pass at 199.91 mph against nemesis Matt Smith, the five-time and reigning champion. 

Granted, Smith had made a last-minute switch from his under-performing Suzuki to his trustier Buell – without any real warm-up or practice in any way on the motorcycle.

But it was Johnson’s week, his time to shine against Smith. Not only did he beat Smith and his certainly respectable 6.811-second, 200.47-mph in the final, but he also eclipsed Smith’s track records as he set low elapsed time and top speed of the meet, 6.711 seconds at 201.55 mph. Along the way, he surpassed 200 mph several times for the first time in his career. 

“I had so much fun in the final. We all hate each other . . . or love each other . . . or I’m not really sure what it is. We don’t send each other Christmas cards. Matt is the professional, and if you follow NHRA, we’re the hobbyist,” Johnson said facetiously, referring to Smith’s not-especially-derogatory description of some racers in the class. “But we are pretty fierce.” 

Johnson was fierce in taking a sort-of-good-natured swipe at Smith. He said, “We have such a little, tiny team, but if I had $10 million, I’d be doing the same thing. Find what you love and chase it and do not stop. And beat Matt Smith, no matter what bike he buys . . . er, brings.” 

Smith looked over and grinned at Johnson, who said, “Hey, man, I had to say it.” 

Johnson said, “No matter how you do it, when you come to a drag race – watching, working on a motorcycle, selling hamburgers – we’re a family, and we all love it in our own way.” 

He and Smith have traded barbs a bit throughout the past few years, and Johnson said fans have said to cut out the mouthing back and forth and all the social-media sniping and just let the scoreboards speak for themselves. 

Johnson said Sunday evening, “I like the chit-chat, but I do like the scoreboards talking, too.” 

Right now, they’re saying things he likes to read. And that’ he said, is because he has embarked on a learning journey, asking questions, discovering new technological information, forming what he calls an advisory board of racers and non-racers alike, and taking a refresher course at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School. 

“We’ve been diggin’ and diggin’ and diggin’,” Johnson said. “It’s so gratifying. No matter how good you think you are, get some coaching. Continue your education. So we’ve been learning. 

“I hope a lot of you wake up every day and want to be the best you can be,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what you’re doing – be the best parent or teacher or whatever it is.” 

That’s what he’s trying to do, and he has made tremendous strides already. It showed Sunday when he eliminated Michael Ray, Jimmy Underdahl, and four-time champion Eddie Krawiec on his was to the showdown with Smith. 

Johnson said he works in a 10,000-square-foot shop at Birmingham, Ala., and spends “95 percent of my time” in a 10-foot-x-12-foot engine room. He said he sleeps on a blow-up mattress there at work much of the time he’s not on the road. 

That’s the life he loves, even with its ups and downs. Now he has a new “elevator pitch.”