CENTRAL POINT, Ore. (Aug. 16, 2024) – It was an accomplishment that Jorddon Braaten would have preferred to have celebrated sooner, but the timing was perfect, anyway.
Braaten became the first Oregon driver in any IMCA division to reach the 100 career win mark, topping the Friesen Performance Northern SportMod feature during the Dwayne Melvin Clash program at Southern Oregon Speedway Friday night.
“I don’t think I could have picked a better night for this, other than Super Nationals,” he said after the $3,069 checkers flew. “It’s a bit of relief. After being at 99 I was wondering when I was going to get the 100th. There’s been a bit of a monkey on my back the last few months.”
Win number 100 came from eighth starting with Braaten lined up against the heavy hitters from the Pacific Northwest in a 40-lapper at White City that ended green, white, checkered.
“It was cool. Kind of everything went through my mind at the same time because I knew it was all together,” he said. “It was cool to win, I knew it was my 100th and the money was nice. It was a good one to win.”
“I knew we’d been getting close to 100 wins a couple years ago,” continued Braaten, a sheriff’s deputy who began racing a more irregular schedule while patrolling overnight in southern Jackson County. “Then it became a goal and it seemed like it became harder once I got to 99.”
That goal achieved, his next is making the Big Dance at the upcoming IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals. Braaten hopes his third trip to Boone Speedway is the charm and he’ll race his way onto Saturday night’s starting grid.
“I would like to make that race. Making the main event would be a goal for me,” he said. “We’ve been there twice and haven’t had a good shake of the place but I would love to make that race.”
“And I’d like to do some more traveling. Me and my dad have talked about that,” he added. “Maybe next year, depending on how work goes. I’d like to travel to the Midwest and race at some other tracks I’ve never been to. We’d like to go back to Arizona, too.”
After moving up from a local street stock class, the wins came quickly for Braaten, who made 10 trips to victory lane in his 2014 IMCA rookie season.
A six-time track and four-time state champion during his career, the Central Point speedster totaled a single-season best 17 checkers and finished 11th in the national points race in 2018.
Braaten is the seventh IMCA driver, and the third Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod driver, to reach the 100 win mark in their career this season.
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