The highlight of any recent racing season for me is when I get to take my granddaughter along to the track. We usually take the ride to Deerfield and I'm sure we'll get there too before too long, but this week it was finally time to take her to Hilltop Speedway. I think she was getting tired of hearing about the place and all the great drivers there, and she REALLY needed to experience it for herself. Without taking her in the pits she was still able to meet some of you folks I enjoy hanging out with every week and she got quite a kick out of it. Thanks to all of you that took the time to chat with her. It made a huge impression on this wonderful little girl. A special thanks goes out to Rory Reed for taking some time to sit with us in the stands for a while. She may have been a bit shy while he was there but Rory now has a fan for life. She picked up a few new heroes Saturday night and cheered for them like she's never done before. The Mini Wedge drivers may have made more of an impression than I would have liked. She's already asking me to build her one and even has the color scheme all worked out. Oh, and she wants it to be really fast too. ;-) She loved the side by side action Hilltop provides in every class and she was pleasantly surprised that she didn't need to wear her goggles to keep the dust out of her eyes. What can I say, her mom took her to another area track recently and goggles were certainly needed.

Probably her favorite race of the night was the Street Stock feature. She became a huge fan of Bob Daugherty earlier in the evening and the feature was quite a thrill for her. Alright, I enjoyed the hell out of it too, but she screamed louder than me when Daugherty took the lead. ;-) This race had most of the crowd on their feet and for good reason. While the 2 car of Kyle Moore started up front, Daugherty lined up in the 4th row with some damn stout competition between him and Moore. It was easy to wonder if Moore would get away before Bob would work his way through the field. That question was answered in just a few laps as Daugherty took to his favorite groove on the bottom and went to work. Caution flags seemed to be the only thing stopping the 21 car from taking the lead and under each caution the ol' veteran pulled beside the younger Moore and you just knew he was getting into his head a bit. We all know it doesn't take much to get Kyle to overdrive the car and that little extra encouragement wasn't gonna make his night any easier. In turn 4 Daugherty finally made the pass for the lead and Moore went pitside to change a tire. That put him on the tail of the lead lap and we all knew the fireworks were gonna really start on the drop of the green. We were right as Moore proceeded to shorten, lighten, and narrow his car while working his way back to the front. Damn, somebody better check those guard rails during the week because he worked them over pretty damn good. Once he had Daugherty in sight it only seemed to get more intense and on the final corner a slam into the railing was probably the only thing keeping him from picking up the win. I guess the moral of this story is that you might be able to buy Moore car and Moore motor, but ya just can't buy Moore talent or experience. ;-) Congrats goes out to Bob Daugherty for one hell of a race. This guy has been been making up for early season engine problems by picking up $3000 in just the past 2 weeks. Not too shabby for the guy they call "Bottom Feeder Bob". If he keeps this up they'll be calling him "Bringing Home ALL The Money Bob"

Thanks again to all of you that helped to make some great memories for Angelena on Saturday night. You proved why we all love this sport as much as we do. It's made up of some of the best people you'll find anywhere!