Hilltop welcomes new faces in victory lane
At Hilltop Speedway on Friday, June 4, fans gathered to watch a night of racing action that saw plenty of newcomers welcomed into the winner’s circle.
Starting off the night were the Holmes Tire late models with Rick Conley setting fast time of 15.177. Heat race winners were Dave Hornikel and Freddie Carpenter with George Lee picking up the dash win.
With the field set, outside pole sitter Anthony Kinkade would take the early lead over Lee. Meanwhile, fifth-place Cody Scott would work his way through the field to claim second with six laps in the books. Eight laps down Scott would close in and pressure Kinkade. Working the bumper of Kinkade, Scott would capitalize on lap 10 to claim the lead. Halfway, caution would fly, bunching the field up single file back to the green.
The next 12 laps would be claimed by Scott, who would go on to pick up his first feature win at The Hill for the season. Kinkade would finish second, followed by Vic Hottinger, Rick Mardis and Freddie Carpenter.
Kyle Moore would set fast time among the Bugs-R-Gone modifieds with a 16.373. Chris Basich and Zach Newell would each pick up a heat race win with Robin Duston securing pole position with the dash win. Bringing the field down the backstretch, the green dropped, and a three-way battle for the lead ensued between Duston, DJ Cline and Moore. Moore would edge out his competitors and claim lap one as the battle would continue between Duston and Cline. However, neither would have anything for Moore as he would sit in victory lane once again. Duston, Cline, Jimmy Smith and Mark Gardner would round out the top five.
Next to roll on the track were the Snyder Hot Shot Truck and Trailer modlites. Heat race winners Blake Morris and Justin Pierce would set the pace to the start of their feature event. After securing the lead on lap one, Morris would retain his position at the front of the field to pick up the feature win. After fending off challenges from Reece Bollinger, Justin Pierce would finish second. Fourth went to Darrell Mayer and fifth to Joe Burkhead.
A full field of CPR mini stocks would have three heat races with wins going to Ed Geary, Billy Parsons and Andy Parsons. A single last chance race would go to Tyler Parsons. After a top-three redraw, the field was set, Geary and Travis Gamble on the front row. With the drop of the green, Geary would take the early lead as Steve Lester and Tyler Parsons worked their way from the back of the field into the top five by the halfway point. Caution, double file back to the green, Tyler would use it to his advantage to claim the lead and ultimately his first feature win at The Hill this season. Geary would finish second, Lester third, Mark Sibla fourth and Dakota Graciani fifth.
The Evan’s Elite Paving street stocks rounded out the night’s events with Brad Hensel and Kyle Moore each picking up a heat race win. With the drop of the green, Moore would take the lead, putting nearly a straightaway between himself and second of Hensel by lap four. Caution free, Moore would lead green to checker to add to his wins on the season. Third went to Kevin Potts, then Seth Dickerson and Jeff Lanham.