After a decade of racing Hobby Stocks, Jayden Michaelsohn is off to a lightning fast start in WISSOTA’s Street Stock division.

The Aberdeen racer is among the division leaders in the Street Stocks at Brown County Speedway, even leading the points standings until yet another near-miss last weekend dropped him six points back of the lead.

“It’s been an up-and-down year in Aberdeen,” Michaelsohn admitted. “The car feels good one night, then the next night it’s not. That all comes with learning the new class.”

Despite being a division rookie, the art of racing is not new to Michaelsohn, whose father Jodie also races a Street Stock. In fact, it’s that father-son relationship that has had the younger man at the track essentially from birth.

“My dad has raced since 1993 or whatever, so when I was little I was always going to the races in the stands,” Jayden Michaelson said. “When I got old enough, I started going to the pits. Then in 2012, I got into the Hobby Stock class.”

Michaelsohn won a number of feature and track championships over the next 10 years of racing, mastering tracks in Wishek, Jamestown and Lisbon in North Dakota, and Miller and Aberdeen in South Dakota.

Now in his first season in the Street Stocks, he’s doing the same in Aberdeen, Miller and Watertown with occasional appearances in Jamestown.

And while there is an admitted learning curve to driving a Street Stock, Michaelsohn is thriving on the competition he’s found in the division.

“A lot of people are all about the Late Models or the Modifieds,” he said, “but personally, I think the Street Stocks is some of the best competition out there. You have to be on your A-game.”

Michaelsohn is currently second in points after Maria Broksieck inched her way into the lead after a feature win last Friday. But with just a couple of chances left to race, the title is far from determined. The top four spots in the division are separated by just 12 points.

That level of competition is certainly a thrill for Michaelsohn, but also serves as a bit of a stresser.

“I’ll admit, points are a stressful thing,” he said. “Even right now, we’re sitting sixth in national points, but it’s always in the back of my mind, I need to finish ahead of this guy. … I wish points wouldn’t be updated until the year is over, so you don’t have to think about it.”

Add in the ever-changing car set-ups – different for each track – and Michaelsohn notes there’s much more to racing than jumping in and driving fast.

“People can say, oh it’s just Hobby stock to Street Stock, but there is a big difference,” he said. “There’s more horsepower in a Streeter, so it’s a little more throttle control. Streeters are about 400 pounds lighter than my hobby stock, but there’s a lot of little things you can change in a Street Stock. … Constantly little changes you can do every week. Little of this, little of that.”

For Michaelson, there’s also the added bonus of sharing the racing experience with his dad. Both men compete in the Street Stocks – a change from previous seasons where each man would pit and spot for the other – and Michaelson said he tries to stop and appreciate the gravity of that experience.

“I cherish every moment,” he said. “Obviously, sometimes it gets a little heated … but it’s really cool to race against my dad.”

Michaelsohn is still looking for his first feature win in the Streets, but says he can feel it coming.

“We’ve been close a couple times this year,” he said. “Should have had a couple wins, but luck just wasn’t on our side.”

As for that points championship? Well, luck plays into that, too.

“A lot of it is luck, whether you get a good draw and whether you can qualify,” he said. “Simple things, not getting in a wreck. There’s a lot of factors in a points title. Being consistent, staying out of trouble, but luck is probably 55 percent of it.”