Johnson claims home track victory

By Ken de la Bastide

PARAGON – Isaac Johnson scored his second consecutive feature win in the only dirt oval race of the season for the Kenyon Midget Series at Paragon Speedway.

Johnson took the lead from Evan Hammond on a lap nine restart Saturday by using the low groove around the quarter-mile oval.

With early point leader Dameron Taylor finishing last after bouncing off an infield tire and damaging the suspension, it gives Johnson the championship point lead.

Johnson joined Taylor with two feature wins in 2025.

Hammond started on the pole position and took the lead over Clayton Bohanon, Taylor and fast qualifier Kyle Sheard.

Sheard moved into the second spot by lap five but a lap later brought out the caution flag with an incident in turn three.

Trisdon Brown took the lead from Hammond on the restart but his night would end on lap eight after flipping following contact with the infield tractor tire..

On the restart Johnson was able to get underneath Hammond coming off the second corner and pulled away from the pack.

Rookie of the year contender Kaleb Case made a late charge to pass Lee Pierce and Andrew Wall to come home in third.

“This was a tricky track and you couldn't get more than a few feet off the bottom,” Johnson said. “There was no grip on the bottom and it was tricky.”

He said he wanted to hit his marks and be in a position to score the victory at the end.

“I knew I wanted to get to Paragon and have the points be close,” Johnson said. “We could have a bad night in the future like Dameron (Taylor) has tonight.”

Hammond looking for that first career win, admitted to making a mistake on the two restarts that cost him the lead.

“I'm a little bit frustrated,” he said. “I made a couple of mistakes on the restarts and and gave up the low line. The race track was super treacherous and that bottom line was the place to be. I had a hard time keeping down low.” Hammond said he had a good point's night at Paragon.

Case making his first ever start on dirt finished for the first time on the podium. “It was an experience,” he said. “I found where I could get some grip. I saw the cars in front struggling and I could see where there was some grip coming off the corners.”

Case said it felt good to have a strong run with the series.

The Redline Ace Rookie of the Year battle also tightened up with Andrew Wall coming home in fourth and Clayton Bohanon finishing tenth.

It was a disappointing night for Sheard who earned the K&K Marketing Fast Qualifier Award and scored a KRJ Race Products heat win with Brown claiming the other heat victory.

Ryan Shilkuski earned the Advanced Racing Suspensions Hard Charger award by gaining ten positions. He finished sixth after starting 16th in the field.