Mike Johnson is well-known at Santa Maria Speedway for making his way to Victory Lane in a Late Model, having won two titles in the last three seasons.

While the Nipomo native, now based in Lompoc, hasn't logged too many laps on the 1/3-mile clay oval this season, he showed that he still had the winning touch.

For most of Saturday night's Western All-Star Super Late Model feature, that is.

Johnson drove his Sivesind Motorsports No. 75 entry to victory over series point leader Bobby Hogge IV of Salinas in a wild 30-lap feature, a race that Johnson swore he'd given away at one point.

“For a little bit, I'd thought I'd lost it back there,” said Johnson in a Victory Lane interview. “I don't know what the (heck) I did for about a lap and a half there. It looked like I took my brain out and tossed it outside.”

In the night's other action, Watsonville's Kyle Camperud broke through for his first-ever IMCA Modified victory, and Santa Maria's Michael Frazier broke a two-year win drought by holding off teammate and point leader Kirk Morgan for his maiden win of 2008.

The moment of anxiety for Johnson came on lap 26, two laps after a key caution that bunched up the field: Johnson bobbled coming out of turn two while holding the lead. That allowed Hogge to duck underneath and pull alongside the leader, setting up a half a lap to remember: Hogge drove hard into turn three with a well-intentioned slide job to take the lead, only to slide high in turn four, allowing Johnson to duck back underneath and re-take the lead, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

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“On that last yellow, I saw the Deuce (Hogge's No. 2) and I thought, ‘Oh, no Š'” said Johnson, the 2005-06 SMS champion. “I knew I was going to have to work for this one.”

Hogge knew that he had a golden opportunity when Johnson made his miscue.

“I kinda ran out of race track down the backstraight, but it's OK,” Hogge said. “It was a great race. We're still coming out of here with the point lead, so that's good in the bigger picture.”

Johnson started the race in the ninth starting position on the 21-car grid, but was able to quickly make his way forward, jumping to fourth by lap six. He got past Merced's Chris Shannon for third on lap nine and began in pursuit of the race's early leaders, Nick Bartels of El Segundo and Morgan Hill's Jeff Decker.

The first major foray for the lead for Johnson came on a lap-10 restart, when he used the Tour's unusual re-start procedure to take a flying start past Decker for second, now in pursuit of Bartels for the lead. That move came two laps later, when Johnson edged past Bartels coming out of turn two and pulled away, giving him a half-lap lead before the lap-24 caution that set up the late-race excitement.

Arroyo Grande's Devin Crockett battled his way through the field to take a very solid third, followed by Bakersfield's John Lowery and Castroville's A.J. Kirkpatrick.

Both Bartels and Decker saw their top-five runs come to painful conclusions in the event on lap 27: Bartels drove up the turn-four wall and send his damaged car into retirement (15th); Decker suffered a punctured rear tire during Bartels' caution and gave away third place to finish 13th.

Like Johnson, Camperud found himself in a late-race battle for the lead, this time with local IMCA point leader Danny Lauer of Santa Maria. The duo swapped the top spot five times through the 25-lapper, with Camperud using his preferred high groove to steal the lead from Lauer out of turn four just before taking the white flag.

“I like that high groove up there,” he said. “It worked really well for me. Oh, my God, that was fun.”

At the end, only 10 of the 18 starters were still on the track, with Santa Maria's Jacob Jones closely following Camperud and Lauer for third; Bakersfield's Larry Hood took fourth, followed by Santa Maria's Josh Vogt.

Frazier has been a model of consistency in the Factory Stock ranks this year, scoring six top-five finishes in nine events coming into Saturday's action. However, none of them have been on the top step of the podium, scoring three seconds, a third, a fourth and a fifth.

On this night, however, Frazier had the right combination to get to the front and stay there. He made his first challenge on the early lead held by Morgan seven laps into the 20-lapper, using a low-side line to edge forward into the top spot by lap eight.

After that, all Frazier had to do to hold on for the win was keep Morgan - a five-time winner this season - at bay, and to not allow doubt creep into his mind.

“The last time I was in the lead that late, I got sideways in turn three and looped it,” Frazier said. “For the last four laps tonight, I was just trying to ease it in, and hold (Morgan) off.”

Santa Maria's Glen Sparks also joined the fight in the latter stages, but never close enough to challenge either Frazier or Morgan for the lead. Sparks ended a solid third, followed by Goleta's Matt Marchiando and Santa Maria's Tim Bennett.

July 20, 2008