By Sara Page, Midlothian Exchange
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Chris Johnson started the first 50-lap Modified race at Southside Speedway in eighth Friday night, by the end of the second race he had found his way to the top. Johnson held off first-race winner Thomas Stinson in a thrilling finish.

In the second race of two, Johnson started first thanks to the invert. Billy Morris jumped into second in the second lap, but Johnson regained the lead midway through the race. Meanwhile, Stinson, who started seventh due to his win in the first race worked his way into third midway through the race. Stinson took the low line on Morris and took second in lap 30 and started working on the leader.

Johnson got a good jump on the restart in the first caution of the night but a second caution in lap 41 gave Stinson a break. Both got good restarts with cautions in lap 43 and 47.

“The cautions helped me a little bit,” Johnson said. “The last one kind of hurt me. For about five laps I could feel him up on me, but it was a good clean race.”

Trying to hold on, Johnson blocked the high line in turn two on lap 48 and the low line in turn three on lap 49 and cruised to the win.

In the first race, Stinson took the low line in turn four on lap 19 to take the lead and never looked back.

“Maybe a little bit of air pressure,” Stinson said of the tweaks his crew would make during the break. “The car wasn’t bad but I think they were holding back a little trying to save tires.”

The Grand Stock race may not have been a feature race, but it proved important in the overall point standings. Sitting back to back in first and second, respectively, Donny Newman and Tommy Tatum were just 60 points apart when the night started. The two started one and two and stayed that way throughout the race, which gives Newman a bit of breathing room. Newman says the points weren’t what he was thinking about when he got in the car though.

“I’m going to race every race to win,” Newman said. “I don’t like riding around. I go for broke and that’s how we’re going to go every week. If we win, we win. If we don’t, that’s the breaks.”

Keith Mackta, who finished third, remains in fourth in the point standings.

Other race winners were Mike Ganoe, Gary Turner and James Loring in the Street Stock division; and Mike Mitchell, David Henderson and Mitch Bartholomew in the Champ Karts.
Racers take a week off next Friday and resume Aug. 14 with qualifying at 6:30 and racing at 7:30 p.m.