Friday night was a short night for me at Lakeville since that asshole I work for kept me from getting there on time to hit the flagstand. Determined not to miss a whole night of Lakeville action, I got there just as the Heat races were winding down. I'm glad I made the trip though as I got to see some interesting racing to say the least. JR Gentry would pick up another Feature win but he had to work his ass off for it once again. George Lee hounded him for several laps before Rick Bond pulled a slide job to take over second place. Bond would ride Gentry hard for a while before the 014 GDI ride stretched it out a bit to pick up his 3rd Feature win of the season at Lakeville. After his strong run the week before at Hilltop it looked like that Lakeville/Hilltop Challenge money might finally be claimed but no such luck. Gentry would have to settle for 3rd at Hilltop this week. Dammit! At the end of the night the 014 would hit the track for the Mechanic's Race with none other than Jim Gentry himself strapped in. They had to remove the top of the car for the "old fella" to get in and out but it was pretty damn cool seeing one of my childhood heroes taking to the track again. I've got plenty of memories of this guy making it tough on us at Lakeville and WCS when I was much younger. If you wanted to win, he was one of the toughest but cleanest driving guys you'd have to battle with every damn week. This time he didn't pull off the win but I guess second ain't so bad. However, I'm not sure I'll let him forget that he got beat by a Sprint driver. ;-)
Mike Bugg Photo
In asphalt action on Saturday night it was time to see if we could back up that win from last week with another strong run. The track was in better shape this week so lap times were more like what we're used to. Qualifying 3rd put Miller on the outside of the front row for the Dash. On the initial start it was clear that things would get rough as Mike found himself spun around before getting out of turn 2. Things would only get uglier as he took the lead and was then tagged in the ass once again by the 1 car which is getting to be an all too familiar sight this season. Hanging onto the car would drop Miller to 4th in the Dash but we still had the Feature to look forward to. There we saw Mike go for the lead early only to be roughed up some more by the very same car. Go figure. At this point Miller had two choices from where I was standing. Either give this kid an education on driving skills (and/or driving with class) which would surely result in going to the tail, or save the car and fall in behind him and settle for second. He made the wise choice and brought home second place after holding off some strong challenges from behind for a while. I honestly don't know if I would have had the patience to make the same choice Mike did but then again I guess that's how he's earned the reputation that he has. Maybe a little of that could rub off on this youngster before things really get out of hand. Let's hope so!
