In 2023 Livia Johnson, now 9, began racing; a year later she fell in love with the sport.

Now in 2025, in a new purple dragster, the Powell girl took the top prize.

Johnson was recently crowned the King of the Track in Billings, winning the Junior Thunder Division crown and took down the Junior Lighting champion to take the overall championship.

Drag racing is a long-standing tradition within the Johnson family, as Livia started racing a few years ago as a fourth generation racer, and has since grown into the competitive field at the Yellowstone Drag Strip.

“In 2024 she ran every race, and she fell in love with it,” her dad, Kory said. “That’s all she wants to do.”

Racing has taken over Livia’s undivided attention, as she said other sports don’t excite her.

“I love all the things about it,” Livia said. “My friend walked up to me, she was like ‘hey, you want to go play soccer?’ And I was like, ‘what kind of person  do you think I am?’”

“Definitely a racecar girl,” Kory added.

That love of racing has only continued to grow as Livia has gotten older, not being able to contain her excitement every time the family makes the trip to Billings to compete.

“She’s the kid that would sleep in her race suit if we let her,” her mom, Ashley said. “She is very much the first person out of the trailer in the morning. She’s got all of her safety equipment on and she’s just sitting there waiting for that first call for juniors.”

Livia’s love for racing extends beyond her own career, being able to cheer on her grandpa Rick while also attending a top end truck pull event in Wisconsin as well this summer, going to the 50th edition of the Budweiser Dairyland Super Nationals in June.

“They had Clydesdales and I had no clue … I had to drag him over to the Clydesdales a lot,” Livia said.

At the event she was able to meet a young female racer in Taylor Corsa, who is one of Livia’s role models.

“That’s like her hero, and I just introduced her to Livia this year,” Kory said. 

GOOD LUCK CHARM

Early on in her racing career, Livia faced some nerves when first getting onto the track, but through experience and a good luck charm she has since grown confident each time she pulls onto the straightaway.

“I just need my lucky little dog with me,” Livia said.

That dog, known as Sparky to the Johnson family, has become somewhat of a good charm for the entire family, even loaning Sparky out to her Grandpa when he needs it.

“Every time she goes on the track, that dog is gonna be in the car with her, it’s just a little stuffed animal,” Kory said.

“It’s funny, because when grandpa’s a little down on his luck, he will ask to borrow Sparky so that he can have a little bit of luck in his race car,” Ashley added.

While Sparky brings an added bit of luck to her racing, Livia added she has also found a favorite lane on the left side of the track each time she
competes.

FINDING THE RIGHT CAR, SPEED

Heading into this season, Livia and her family had been preparing a car fine-tuned to compete in the races this year, before Kory was approached late with an opportunity to purchase a new car.

“We go up there with her old car, and she goes out there, we had that car dead consistent going into the season. I was like, ‘alright, I know what to do,’” Kory said. “Four days before the first race, my buddy from Billings sent me a picture of these two juniors for sale. He says, ‘If you don’t I’m going to.’ So I called him. It was a buddy of his, his kids had aged out and he needed to get rid of these cars … So I bought these two cars, and my plan was the car that she won the championship with this year, I was gonna save it for when she can go to 8.9 racing, because I’ve got an 8.9 motor sitting on my shelf at home.”

That plan did not work out.

“Well, it was purple and it was raced by a girl … I was pretty much told before the first race by my team that we’re either gonna run the purple car or we’re not going,” Kory said. “I’m like, I know nothing about that car … We went out there and made a couple test passes (runs) and we weighted it out, It was a little fast off the trailer … She went out there consistently at 12 seconds, won the first race, and won the second race.”

The season in Billings kicked off in May, with the family making the trip up for a clinic and setting their camper up — the camper didn’t come home until September.

At the youth divisions of racing the kids compete with varying levels of time restraints, as young racers must finish after a certain time, while the trick is remaining as close as they can to the time.

Currently, Livia’s class of 8 and 9-year-olds must finish an eighth of a mile in 11.9 seconds or slower, meaning fine-tuning is required to ensure that she finishes as close to that time without going faster.

“She’s going about 55-56 miles per hour, depending on how we have the car weighted,” Kory said. “That car, if the wind is calm and the air doesn’t change much, it’s very consistent.”

WINNING SEASON

From that opening weekend of the season, Livia led the way and earned points through a number of top finishes and passes made on the track.

One of the family’s most adventurous weekends came when Kory was unable to attend, putting Ashley in charge of racing.

“The race day that she (Ashley) was most scared of was when he (Kory) was gone,” Livia said. “She was like, ‘we aren’t gonna make it, we’re not gonna win.’ What do we do? We show up and we win.”

“I got a bunch of pictures and messages (saying) ‘looks like you’re fired as crew chief,’” Kory joked.

Livia ran away with the most points after leading the entire season, finding herself at the top of the Junior Thunder Division.

Following the victory, Livia earned herself another title, as she took on the winner of the older Junior Lightning Division, which puts the two racers against each other in a race to determine the “King of the Track.”

Since Livia has a slower car she earned an early start off the line, and finished ahead of the faster car to take the crown.

One of the biggest supporters of the racers in Billings is Rick Boyce, who is part of the family that owns the track, and encourages all of the kids to have fun and supports them through the entire season.

“He really takes care of these kids,” Kory said. “Last year, he goes, ‘the day she gets her first round win, or wins a race, I’m gonna be the first one there to give her a hug.’ And when she got her first win, as she’s coming off the track, he’s taking photos and he comes running over with his camera to give her a hug.”

Claiming victory comes with a price, as Boyce makes kids dance in victory lane as they receive their trophy.

Livia’s go-to move?

“Whatever is in my mind that day,” she said.

Following the strong year, Livia was thankful for the track crew that helped her down the track as well as her family for the support throughout the season.

CONTINUING FORWARD

Livia will not be the only young drag racer in her family starting next year, as her younger sister Ainsley, 4, gets the chance to hit the track.

“Ainsley is very much paying attention to what her sister is doing,” Ashley said.

Due to her age, Livia will continue to compete at the Junior Thunder Division and have a chance to defend her crown next year, but won’t get the chance to compete against her sister unless they both win their respective division titles once Livia reaches Lightning and Ainsley competes in Thunder.

Kory is hopeful he will be able to get Livia to travel more in the foreseeable future, as there are a number of junior races across the country especially in the southern United States that he believes she could be able to compete in.

“We’re getting to the point we’ll probably end up traveling more, because I’d like her to run more than just the local track,” Kory said. “The local track is great … It’d just be nice to get her some experience on some other tracks too.”