What started as a hot and muggy evening in the hills of Amish country at Hilltop Speedway in Millersburg, OH quickly turned to thunder storms and heavy rain shortly after the O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions heat races concluded. Heat race action was fierce on the high banked oval as Ohio Sprint Speedweek reached its mid-way point – a time where teams are tired, tempers flare, and frustration begins to take it’s toll on racers traveling across the state for the 8 consecutive nights of competition.
Litchfield, Michigan’s Chad Blonde, who won the 2006 All Star Rookie of the Year title, picked up his second career All Star win by besting the field of 40 cars who signed in to compete for the $5000 top prize. Blonde drove the bright orange #5B wherever he wanted on the lightning fast oval to hold off a hard charging Kenny “The Mouse” Jacobs who was looking for career All Star win #98 in front of a hometown crowd. Jacobs had to settle for second as Blonde was able to maneuver through lapped traffic and was able to rocket away from Jacobs on the restarts. Brandon Martin, who was runner up to Blonde in 2006 All Star Rookie points, finished 3rd.
Phil Gressman “parked it in the holler” in his heat race as he flipped off the back stretch and nearly tumbled down the 30’ embankment behind the catch fence where the infield storm drains dump into the ravine. Gressman walked away unhurt, but the car did not fare nearly as well.
Heat races were won by Bill Rose, Paul May who won the previous night’s events, Shane Stewart and Danny Mumaw.
The O’Reilly All Star Dash was scrapped due to the inclement weather moving in over the mountains and the program was altered to quickly line up the B-main. As the cars were pushed off, the skies opened up and soaked the speedway. After a 2 hour rain delay, Lance Dewease picked up the B-main win.
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