Taylor's strong finish brings 2022 championship

Aaron Skillman photo

By Ken de la Bastide

It takes consistency over the course of the Kenyon Midget Series season to secure a championship. Dameron Taylor came from almost 200 points down to overtake Jackson Macenko over the final four races to record his record third series championship.

Macenko and Taylor were in a tight battle until the seventh race of the season at Anderson Speedway. Taylor made contact with another competitor and flipped in the fourth corner ending his night and resulting in a season worse 12th place showing. But over the course of the final four races Taylor scored wins at Anderson and Mt. Lawn speedways and added a pair of runner-up showings at Anderson and US 24 Speedway.

While Taylor was hitting his stride, Macenko saw a strong run for the championship disappear with three consecutive races where he didn't finish in the top ten.

At the final race at US 24, Macenko set K&K Marketing Fast Time, scored the KRJ Race Products heat win and the feature win. Taylor won a KRJ Race Products heat race and finished second in the feature to secure the championship.

For the season Taylor visited victory lane three times, recorded four runner-up finishes and finished in the top ten in 10 of the 11 races.

Taylor said he had to be consistent at US 24 Speedway and take the laps one at a time. “Throw out the one bad race at Anderson and the dirt tracks and all my finishes were in the top five,” he said of the title. Taylor said a second place finish was good and the track requires maintaining momentum. “It was good battling back and forth with Jack (Macenko) like we did all year,” he said. “We've always raced each other clean.”

Taylor won rookie of the year honors in 2012 and the championship in 2017 and 2018. During his career he has won 15 times at Anderson Speedway and has recorded 21 top five finishes. Taylor also has won 26 feature wins, the most of any driver in Kenyon Midget competition.

“We worked hard on the car all year,” Taylor said. “We were just trying to be consistent at every track the series raced at. The competition this year was the toughest it has been in several years with a lot of talented rookies joining the series,” he said.