Ol' Mother Nature tried pretty hard to keep those racing engines quiet this weekend, but she slipped up and allowed some damn good action to take place on Saturday night. Friday night was washed out at every track in the area and the sky wasn't looking good all day Saturday. I still couldn't make myself stay home since Hilltop was holding their Street Stock invitational. The folks at Hilltop were determined to get the show in and even with the addition of the Mod Lites, they served up another kickass show at a reasonable time.
The past few weeks at Hilltop the Late Models and Mods have provided the best side by side action all night. This week it was on the Street Stocks to steal the show and they did one hell of a job doing it. 31 of them signed in to chase that $1000 to win the feature and there was plenty of them that had a legitimate shot at it. In the end it was that big bad Buick of Brandon Gardner taking home his 38th win on "The Hill" but he sure as hell earned this one. He had to hold off Dickerson damn near every lap of the 20 lap feature. You'd swear that Gardner fella had a mirror at times and no matter where Dickerson tried to make the pass he'd find that Buick in his way. Nice job Brandon! In Late Model action we were treated to a Dash win by one of those veterans of dirt that ya can't help but cheer for, Rick Bond. Damn that was fun to watch! With guys like Bond, Lee, Hornikel, Drown, and Corey Conley making up the front of the feature lineup it looked like we'd have a wild battle for the top spot. Well, that was until George Lee went to riding that groove that only he would ride, and put on a clinic the entire 25 lapper. Sure there was great 3 and 4 wide action behind him but I doubt he was even aware of it from his cockpit. Love him or despise him, this crazy bastard is just plain wild to see in action, especially on "The Hill".
Hilltop wasn't the only place for some crazy action on Saturday night either. On the asphalt side of things, Mike Miller picked up the feature win at Midvale on what can only be described as another wild night of mayhem. Last week Miller was a victim of the bash fest this place has become to be known for but still wheeled his way from the tail to 3rd in one ugly mess of a race car. This week he'd once again feel like a pinball in the feature but that wasn't gonna stop him this time. On the opening lap Mike shot into the lead before turn one, but the ugliness would catch up with him before getting out of turn 4. Weekly caution king Bryant Smith punted him in front of the entire field. I could go on quite a rant about this idiot destroying cars every week and getting away with it, but all I'll say is it seems that he runs out of talent about the time he pushes the starter button. Being the track owners son has allowed him to chase many good cars away sadly, but for once they did the right thing and sent him off the track. It's about damn time! Luckily the car wasn't damaged much this week and they called for a complete restart putting Miller back up front. History has shown that when he starts on the front row, the rest of the field would only see the rear spoiler of his ride for 30 laps, and they didn't even get a good look at it until the closing laps this time. This would be his second feature win this season in the #22 car of Ron Jaberg with the other one being at Barberton when he won it from the tail. Sorry I missed this one! I don't plan to miss next week though as Miller will strap into a Modified for the very first time in his career. This should be fun to watch!
