Ridley Motorcycles Picture Design and Review

When Smith came on board, the team’s fortunes continued on the upswing. Smith’s racing knowledge has been a big help to the Hills and they’ve put that know-how to good use with a recent flurry of good runs at North Georgia Speedway, winning several races in the past few weeks.

“Our program has really picked up and we’re going to North Georgia this weekend on a pretty good roll,” Randy said. “Four weeks ago, Jeff won and I ran third. The next weekend, Jeff was on the pole and I was outside him; he won (the feature) and I was second. After that, I was the fast qualifier and managed to win a race. Jeff finished second.”

The two drivers are among the top threats to win tonight’s Crate points championship race — it’s a 20-lap event — and the $800 first-place prize money. On the day of his father’s cancer surgery, Randy made sure his dad was OK and then jumped in the hauler and took off for Jasper, Fla., to compete in a national go-kart event. But competing without his father with him was no picnic.

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“We didn’t have a lot of luck,” Randy Hill said. “But dad wanted me to go. When I got back, I said, ‘When you’re ready to go back to racing, we’re going back.’ But I sure didn’t want to go without him again.”

With his father still recovering from the operation, Randy received an offer to drive a dirt-track car.

“I told the guy I’d love to,” Randy said. “I worked on that old car night and day trying to get it to go around a track. A while later dad saw that car in the shop and he told me to get it out of there. A couple of weeks after that, he called and asked if I had left for North Georgia Speedway yet. I told him we were on our way. He came down later. The next day he was back at the track with me. And we’ve gradually built up from there to where we now have three cars. He’s always supported me.”

In 2006, the Hills bought a car that Ken Shrader had driven from C.J. Rayburn and their racing success started to change because they were more competitive.