September 12, 2011 (Baldwin Park, CA) - It was a special night at the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.  The track remembered the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 tragedy by honoring firefighters and first responders.  With the American flag proudly waving in the background, the crowd was ready to honor those heroes as well as see some exciting racing, which is what they got.  It was also the penultimate night of competition for the Lucas Oil Slick Mist Super Late Model season. With 2 more races left in the season the Position One Motorsports group, including its driver Rod Johnson Jr, arrived this weekend with a 36-point lead in the championship and were looking forward to putting more distance between them and the 2nd place of Ryan Partridge.  After suffering a fracture in his foot as a result of a freak tire blowout that occurred on August 20th during the Late Model race, the night would be a long and painful one for RJ, but the 21 year old would weather through the pain and take home his 7th top-3 finish of the season.
Fall like weather greeted those arriving at the track earlier in the afternoon with the day giving way to cool and breezy temperatures.  After almost a month off, RJ climbed into his Super Late Model and put in two practice efforts, using both sessions to get back into the familiarity of the car and track.   Fairly comfortable, the team prepped the car for RJ’s qualifying session.  

Being the last to qualify, RJ took to the ½ mile track at blistering speeds and executed 2 perfectly fast laps.  The registered best lap time of 17.581 seconds catapulted RJ to the top of the timesheets and he took home his 6th pole position of the season.

Starting on the inside of row #1 RJ took the start of the race and was quickly fighting to stay alongside the #88 of Ryan Partridge.  With Partridge taking the lead, RJ took control of the 2nd spot after an initial challenge from #9 Jack Madrid.  The rest of the 75-lap race would end up being a dogfight between the trio.  Partridge would manage to lead by a 1 car margin for the beginning stages of the race, however RJ was not about to let Partridge run a way with the lead and continued to hover around Partridge, with Madrid not too far back.  After several caution flag restarts, one on lap #9 and the other on lap # 48, RJ was unable to retake the lead, but he continued to keep Partridge’s spotter busy as he continued to poke the nose of the #03 King Taco entry at every corner.  Towards the end of the race Partridge took RJ to the low side of the track causing Johnson Jr to the grass around turn #1.  RJ recovered, but he exited Turn #2 very loose and got extremely close to the outside wall.  The recovery was spectacularly successful and RJ was able to continue but the move by Partridge caused the #9 of Jack Madrid to get by and take the 2nd spot away.  Unable to challenge Madrid for the position RJ continued and was able to take away a third place finish.  While unable to take the win, RJ still leaves satisfied in still owning the championship lead.

Rod Johnson Jr – Driver #03 – “ Well we didn’t come up with the win but we end up still keeping the lead, which in the end, is the most important part.  I have to thank the Position One Motorsports’ guys, King Taco, Luis Martinez, my parents and my girlfriend for their support and their hard work throughout the year.”