Walter Johnston Passes Away

The former forum moderator and lead race reporter of LongIslandJam.com, as well as the founder of MyRaceNews.com, passed away on Monday, November 30 after nearly a year-long battle with cancer.

For over a decade, Johnston covered the races at Riverhead Raceway and in the Northeast. From 2000 to 2007, he helped LongIslandJam.com rise to prominence in the local racing scene. While then chief director and site founder J.A. Ackley attended college from 2000 to 2005, Johnston often provided the face for LongIslandJam.com in the pits and in the stands when Ackley could not make it.

During the infancy of auto racing message boards, Johnston set the standard for moderating forums. He meticulously managed the forums in a way that quickly squelched nonsense while permitting discussion in a constructive fashion that often led to real changes at Riverhead Raceway and beyond.

He applied the same high standards to his reporting at LongIslandJam.com, with articles that often provided a strikingly fair assessment of the night’s races.

After his tenure at LongIslandJam.com, he moved on to found MyRaceNews.com, a site that covers racing in the Northeast. In the past year, as his health began to fade, he passed the site to Michael Jaworecki.

“I’m incredibly thankful for the tireless effort Johnston put into LongIslandJam.com,” said J.A. Ackley, LongIslandJam.com founder and now managing editor for Dick Berggren’s Speedway Illustrated. “He enjoyed conversing with competitors, officials, and fans. But, he truly loved the sport and being a part of it, which reporting enabled him to do. Many will certainly miss his presence at the track.”

Family will receive friends to celebrate Walter’s life Wednesday, December 2 at 2-4 p.m. and 7-9:30 p.m. at Michael J. Grant Funeral Homes Inc., 571 Suffolk Ave., Brentwood, New York.