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Three drivers continue Hilltop hot streaks

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It was repeat winner night at Hilltop Speedway Saturday, or that's how it seemed during feature action at the Holmes County track.

Winning the late model dash, J.R. Gentry would start on the pole of the feature as he was looking to claim the Lake-Hill Challenge after winning at Lakeville Speedway Friday. Gentry would lead the opening four laps of the feature that included three yellows. Dave Hornikel, Jeremy Canada, points leader Charlie Duncan and Wayne Maffett Jr. all were in hot pursuit on each restart. Using the high side, Hornikel was able to get by Gentry on lap five as Duncan would follow in his tire tracks to drop Gentry to third. Hornikel could never get more than two car lengths away from Duncan, and in the last four laps, Charging Charlie would be able to pull alongside of fast qualifier Hornikel in the corners, but could never take the lead. As a result, Hornikel parked in victory lane for the third week in a row and fourth time in five weeks. Gentry hooked up in the high groove and chased down heat winner Maffett Jr. and slipped past him at the checkered flag to take third as Bryan Casey held off Blaine Aber for fifth.

Since Hilltop Speedway re-opened in 2006, Kevin Morehouse and Norm Aronhalt have the most wins in the Snyder Brothers Tri-State Modifieds with Aronhalt having 10 wins in 2007 to lead in that stat while Morehouse was sitting on nine wins this year. With those two finishing one-two in the dash, they would start the feature side by side on the front row. At the drop of the green, Morehouse would grab the lead from the pole and run the middle of the track as Aronhalt would climb to the high groove in pursuit. On lap four, Stormin' Norman would let his car get away from him and spin in turn four to bring out the caution and be sent to the tail. Robin Dustin would inherit second place with quick timer Gary Clark, Rick Mardis, Charlie Duncan and Matt Samples following. Morehouse kept Dustin at bay to post his 10th win of the year (24 all time wins at Hilltop). Clark held on to fourth as Duncan stopped a fast closing Ryan West for fifth.

The Street Stock feature will be one of those that will be remembered for quite a while as points leader Todd Swim and Brandon Gardner, but soon the race was between Dob Daugherty and Gardner. The final caution would be with five laps to go and on that restart, Gardner went to the low side of Daugherty, and as the white flag waved, the two blue cars rubbed together heading down the backstretch with neither giving an inch. Gardner was able to edge into the lead at the line for the win. In just his fifth appearance of the year at Hilltop, the Troy driver has four wins in the last five weeks and an all time high 27 career wins. Swim held on to third as the top three were the heat winners. John Wilson and John Stream filled out the top five.

It's never easy to win your first feature and that's the way it was for Millersburg's Mitch Ling in the Holmes Tire Mini Stock main. Although he led all the way, Ling had to hold off Brett Adkins early before Terry Adkins applied the pressure late in the race. Terry, Brett, and Jerry Adkins finished second-fourth, respectively, while Tanner Neel rounded out the top five.

The youngsters and their Mini Wedges continued to put on some great races as Brady Reed set the pace for the opening lap of their feature before Levi Bowen took control for the next three laps. But, it was Zanesville's Blake Morris edging into the lead as the white flag flew, and for the second time this year, the 9-year-old took the checkered flag as well as winning the heat race on the last lap. Bowen was second with points leader Tanner Johnson third, followed by Triston Lillibridge and Charity Bubeck.