Auto Racing: Johnson dominates and Jordan makes history

BARROWS — A season of dominance continued for Aaron Johnson while Troy Jordan gained a milestone win Saturday, Aug. 7, at North Central Speedway.

Johnson owns one of the fastest cars this season with more evidence coming in the 20-lap feature race. Johnson earned a fourth-row start from the draw, but worked his way to the top spot one lap into the race. He built a half-track lead by running as low as 17.6 seconds per lap compared to 19 seconds for the rest of the field. Twice he built sizable leads after caution flags tightened the field. In the end, he was in a familiar spot taking pictures in victory lane after his ninth win of the season. He also overtook Shawn Fletcher, who finished second, for the points lead. Johnson now owns a one-point lead.

Veteran driver Troy Jordan is no stranger to victory lane. He collected a track championship with numerous wins in a Midwest Modified car, but Jordan is transitioning to a Stock Car. A number of nights saw Jordan leave early with car trouble. Lately, however, Jordan has been running closer to the front with a second-place finish on July 30. Jordan held off Dave Johnson, who finished second, and Tim Gonska, who leads the points race, and for the win. It was a milestone victory for Jordan who has feature wins in six of the classes he has competed in during his career.

Nathan Kohl has led the Sports Compact class with six wins to his credit in 2022. He seemed uncatchable but Brandon Nyberg changed that during the two weeks. In the last two features, Nyberg defeated Kohl at the checkered flag for feature wins. Kohl now leads Nyberg by just 18 points with three weeks to go in the points-racing season.

Chad Funt won for the second time in as many starts in the Mod 4 feature. Funt started in the front two of the 17-car feature and remained there after a number of caution flags. He secured victory in front of Landyn Randt and Skyler Smith. Gerrald Nohner leads Smith by a seven-point margin in the points race.

Craig Paul won his first feature in more than a decade with a Hobby Stock win and Dennis Czech got his first win of the season for the Super Stocks.

There’s a tight points race for the Northern Sport Modified class but the feature events have been plagued by caution flags. That was the case again in the 20-lap feature with a fifth caution flag reducing the length of the race from 20 to 15 laps. Only 13 of the 20 cars finished the race. Points leader David Siercks was eliminated in an early caution. That produced an opportunity for Jake Hagemann and Craig Paul to cut into Seicks' lead. Hagemann was sent to the back of the field for causing the third caution and never gained traction. He finished seventh. Paul placed fourth behind race winner Mark Martini. At the end of the night's racing Siercks’ lead was one point over Paul and 11 points over Hagemann.