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Jordan Almanza

Jordan Almanza

Near the end of the 2022 season a huge sigh of relief could be heard throughout the bomber ranks in Central Indiana. The cause of celebration was the news that Jordan Almanza would be moving to super stock competition in 2023. Since 2016 no one has topped Almanza in the title chase at Lincoln Park Speedway and in that period, he added a Bloomington Speedway crown to the mix. Adding to his impressive run for two consecutive years he has joined the great Kody Swanson as the Hoosier Auto Racing Fans (HARF) Driver of the Year. No matter how popular he is among his peers, those who join him in the pit area all summer long are understandably anxious to grab a bigger slice of the pie.
Unlike so many of today’s racing stars Jordan did not launch his career before his first days in elementary school. Far from it. His cousin Levi Perkins was active in the sport and helped a wide range of local racers on an off the track. When it came time to take in the action Perkins often drug Jordan along. Yet, the truth is the youngster had been hooked on the sport for some time. “My mom lived in Greencastle and worked at FB Distro which is Ascena now,” Almanza says, “and they had weekends where they would give free tickets to Lincoln Park. I immediately fell in love with it and wanted to go racing.” Desire is one thing, making a dream come to life is another story.
Jordan, a resident of Roachdale, Indiana graduated from North Putnam High School and then attended Ivy Tech where he earned a degree in Applied Sciences. It was here he took a bold step. Chuckling as he tells the tale he says, “When I got done with college, I did about the dumbest thing you could ever do and took out a bank loan and bought a race car.” If you want to hear him laugh even louder just ask him about his first effort. “It was a Cutlass,” he says, “orange and blue and it was the ugliest racecar I have ever seen. It had a fairly stock 350 in it and there wasn’t anything racy about it. I remember the first time I raced. I gassed it up and thought I was really doing something and then C J Bryan and Lloyd Walls and all these other guys came around me at what seemed like 200 miles an hour faster. I thought right then that I was going to have to get my act together.”
Like so many rookies at any age there was a lot to learn. Jordan doesn’t sugarcoat it one bit, he deems his first year to be a real struggle. “I think we actually finished one feature in like the five or six I started,” he says, “I had some buddies that lived in Lizton, Indiana named Mike and Josh and they came to watch one night, and they were like, hey we’ve got to help you. There is no way this car should look like this. We don’t know anything about racing but that’s not good.” So that winter was devoted to upgrading his equipment. Along with a fellow racer from Kokomo the car got a complete makeover.
While there was some confidence that things would improve, Almanza was not prepared to take a premature victory lap. “This was the first year Joe Spiker had Vermillion County Speedway in Danville, Illinois,” he says, “and I raced there all year long. That’s how I have become Joe’s longest running racer. I decided I was going to race in Illinois because I didn’t want to embarrass myself at home anymore. We decided to go over there and figure it out.”
That is exactly what Almanza did. The offseason labor paid dividends. He had much better results and finished in the top ten in points. With a baseline established it was time to think about bigger goals. Making that happen was going to require new equipment, and he eventually established a relationship with Travis Rodgers at Barn Built Race Cars. By 2015 Jordan branched out and finished second in United Stock Car Alliance points. “We started out really well and were running up front,” he says, “The deal was determined on your best fifteen races and I think David Short won about twenty in a row and blew the points out of the water.” However, the highlight was taking his first ever checkered flag at Lincoln Park Speedway. It was a memorable moment. “That season I don’t know how many times Tim Wright beat me on the last lap,” Jordan notes “He would let me lead all the way to the white flag and then he would pass me. I remember winning the first one and Tim pulls up beside and I was so nervous I wouldn’t even look over at him because I didn’t know if I had won the race. So, he got mad at me. He said he tried to give me a thumbs up and I wouldn’t even look at him. I told him I was making another lap to be sure that I really won.”
After the 2015 season Travis Rodgers suggested that they reduce their footprint and try to have more success at places like Lincoln Park. It paid off with a seven win season and his first championship. From that point he has never looked back. However, the 2022 season was not easy. It was the tightest race he had experienced since his first title. “We struggled the middle part of the year,” he says, “so we sat down and talked about everything. I knew what I was doing wrong and Travis knew what he could do to make it better. Then we got our stuff together. It just so happened that Megan (Cavaness) had a bad night when we started to make our final push so it all worked out for us in the end.”
When you have finished on the top so many times it would have been easy to take his foot off of the pedal. That’s not in Almanza’s playbook. “It still mattered to me like it always has,” he says, “I have always had the passion to win races. I’m not going to say oh well, that’s good enough. I always want to do better, and Travis is the same way.” It is the same spirit they will take to the super stock series in 2023. Make no mistake about it, Almanza expects to win with this group too. His goal is to capture the UMP National championship and he hopes he can parlay that into some form of late model racing. Again, confidence is not in short supply. He fully expects to attain this level at some point. “That is what I have always wanted to do down the road. I want to give that a go and see if I could do well in a late model. That was one of the reasons for getting into a super stock. This is a way to prepare to chase that dream down. I spent a lot of time watching races in Illinois, so I want to play around in the Land of Lincoln. We have an idea where we want to head. We just have to get some experience and save up some pennies and one day we will get it done, I’m sure.”
When he takes a minute to reflect he realizes that he has gone full circle. He remembers sitting on a stool watching one of his favorite racers Larry Raines working on his car. Holding a picture in his hand he was nearly petrified to ask his hero for an autograph. Now he routinely pits near the 2023 Lincoln Park super stock champion so he can exchange fun barbs with him throughout the night. Because he can take a long view he appreciates the journey as much as the outcome. In his mind he has participated in a golden age. “I got blessed to race with the greatest group of racers. Lloyd Walls, C J Bryan, A J Smith, these are Lincoln Park legends. If you beat any of those guys, you were really doing something.” Today he knows what it feels like to do just that. As a new season dawns one thing is now certain -- Jordan Almanza is an Indiana racing legend too. Somewhere on a hot weekend night a kid sits in the stands and imagines what it might be like to race against his hero someday. We know from Almanza’s example this is a wish that can come true.

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