Mother Nature has sure made it tough for racers, fans, and tracks so far this season. After another week of shitty weather, I was a bit surprised that Hilltop was able to get their Mini Stock Madness show in Friday night. It took plenty of track prep to make it happen, but there was actually a little dust early in the night. Dust wasn't the only thing flying Friday night either. Chet Alexander was flying as he picked up the heat race win, and looked great at the start of the feature until a stuck throttle ended his night. What a shame just as it looked like he finally had the 16 car dialed in. Another guy that had his car dialed in was Rick Bond. Bond has had many strong runs at Hilltop, and the crowd went absolutely wild as he chopped through the field from 6th place and took the feature win from George Lee. It's about damn time! ;-)
Fingers seemed to be flying all night in the Modified class. I'm not sure what the hell was going on, but the class that usually puts on one of the best shows on dirt, turned in a pretty ugly night of racing. The beating and banging went on all night and finished with the feature winner crossing the line on his way into a backwards slide into turn 1 hooked to the car behind him. Blaine Aber just wasn't going to be denied the feature win. Way to go "Old Man"!!
The Pure Stocks also had their share of fast action all night, and the car count is already climbing back towards last season's average. The battle for the top spot now has some new players each week with guys like Sharier who has really stepped things up this year. This fella is gonna be one to watch for sure. Tire problems took him out of the feature early, but there was plenty more action before it was over. Jeff Facemire started on the tail due to tire problems of his own in the heat race, but wasted little time heading to the front. As the laps slipped away, the leaders tried to do the same, but before long Jeff was trying to find a way around Fred Snyder for 2nd. While Fred went into blocking mode, Denny Shear joined the party. Facemire and Shear would take the checkers in a photo finish for 3rd on the bumper of Snyder. That was just plain good, clean, fun racing, and I enjoyed the shit out of it as much as they did. Now, do it some more! ;-) It should be a bit more challenging next week when some more fresh faces roll in for the Pure Stock Showdown.
I'm happy to tell you that Brandon Craver has finally broken the curse that has haunted him since last season. It seemed that he just couldn't pull off a feature win when his woman was at the track. That all changed Friday night and I promise I won't harass Heather any more about it. I'll just have to find something else to harass her about now. ;-) Congrats Brandon, on pulling off the double feature wins this weekend. Damn, that truck looks sharp out front. Keep it up young fella!
The asphalt news has been very limited this year since Midvale has only been able to get 2 shows in so far. The action there reminds me of the old version of Lakeville where everybody leaves with less car than they started the night with. Both Late Model features have been ended by time limits due to the ugliness. Where the hell is Eddie when ya need him? ;-) We've tried many different things on Miller's car so far this year, and I have a feeling we're not done yet. Mike has picked up one heat race win and is currently leading the points, but the search for that extra something never ends. Next Saturday Mike will be piloting another ride in the Main Event Series show at Midvale. It should be a nice break for him to play with somebody else's toys for a weekend. ;-)
