Many familiar faces along with a few surprises completed a stellar field of 30 Modifieds who wanted one last chance at victory lane but the class of the field turned out to be Hilltops inaugural champion
Kevin Morehouse who came from the second row to win the dash and set up a green to checkers main event run for the money. Although no stranger to victory lane in the region this year, tonight was only the second win at Hilltop Speedway for the Rice Excavating / Valley ATV sponsored Bob Pierce number 28 Modified. Larry Holbrook recorded fast time of the night at 15. 809 seconds, one of only three to crack the fifteen second bracket and heats went to Jack Young, Kris McCombs, and Sam Lovejoy. The feature got off to a slow start but once racing stayed green the action became intense throughout the field.
Tom Conley caught Robert Garnes and the two began picking cars off one by one, first Charlie Duncan then Norm Aronhalt, but when they caught the brand new machine driven by Kris McCombs they found a real battle and only Garnes would slip by. Blaine Aber would work his way from fourteenth and into a top ten finish driving McCombs backup car. With laps winding down, Sam Lovejoy and Jack Young had worked themselves from mid pack and were now fighting for the runner up position, finally secured by Lovejoy. The Phantom 309 driven by this years track champion, Norm Aronhalt, had a very busy night as I swear he did battle with every car on the track at one time or another before ending the night in seventh. Young, McCombs, and Lovejoy scored heats while Denny Benjamin scored the checkers in the consy.
I have to add, it was especially entertaining to see Aronhalt and the EZ1 machine of Andy Parks pounding the corners side by side during hot laps.
