Johnson takes Speedrome honors
Isaac Johnson visits Jeff Hill Trailer Sales Victory Lane at the Speedrome. (Aaron Skillman photo)
By Ken de la Bastide
INDIANAPOLIS – Isaac Johnson added his name to the list of winners with the Kenyon Midget Series scoring the victory at the Indianapolis Speedrome.
Johnson had to pass Dameron Taylor, a two-time winner already in 2025 and the winner of the K&K Marketing fast qualifier award on the tricky oval.
Through the redraw Taylor started on the pole position with Evan Hammond starting on the outside of the front row. Johnson would roll off fifth.
Taylor took the lead at the start with Johnson taking advantage of the inside starting spot climbing to second after six of the 30 laps. Johnson took the lead from Taylor on the eighth circuit with an inside move entering turn one. Despite a couple of restarts Johnson went on to win by less than a second over Taylor with Clayton Gaines coming home in third.
For Johnson it was his second finish in three races on the podium following a third at the Sportsdrome and fourth in the Dick Jordan Classic at Anderson Speedway.
“It was pretty great,” Johnson said of his first career Kenyon Midget Series feature win. “I haven't been in a lot of races, only eight or nine over the past four or five years. It was really a team win,” Johnson said. “The car drove exactly as I needed it to. It means a lot to win,” he continued. “I got the monkey off my back and it's early in the season.”
Johnson admitted to making some mistakes, but plans to work on the restarts and earn the respect of his fellow competitors.
“The team has been fast out of the gate,” he said. “We were really quick at the Sportsdrome and got caught in some incidents at Anderson.”
Taylor said it was a good night for his team. “The car had a bad push during practice and we made it too loose in the heat race,” he said.
Taylor said Johnson gave him a tap on the rear bumper through the third and fourth corners to take the lead. “I tried to get back underneath on the front straight, but that didn't work,” he said.
Taylor said setting fast time, winning a heat race and leading laps made it a good night.
“Finally,” Gaines said of his strong showing at the Speedrome. “The first couple of races has been a sort of test. Hopefully it wasn't to show what the whole season was going to be like.”
Gaines believed he had a shot at the victory if there would have been five more laps.
By climbing from the ninth place starting spot to a podium finish, Gaines won the Advanced Racing Suspensions Hard Charger award.
Taylor was fast qualifier with a time of 12.304-seconds within a tenth of a second of the track record of 12.225-seconds set by Aryton Houk in 2021.
Clayton Bohanon was second quick followed by Hammond and Tristan Brown.
Taylor won the first KRJ Race Products heat race over Johnson and Hammond with Bohanon taking the honors in the second heat over Kyle Sheard and Evan Patton.
The battle for the Redline Ace rookie of the year has turned into a tussle between Bohanon and Andrew Wall, with Bohanon now leading Wall by 27 points.
The series is off until May 31 when it returns to Paragon Speedway for the only race on dirt in 2025.