On the Run with Mike Gardner driver of the Hilllwood Sales Super Gas Corvette

National Dragster, Jun 3, 2005 by Gardner, Mike

I may not be a Professional racer, but racing is my profession. My wife Katie and I recently purchased the family business Hillwood Sales, which we promote through our racing efforts at the track and through our ads in the back of National DRAGSTER. Our motorhome and trailer product lines are manufactured by Renegade and Haulmark. After dedicating more than 25 years to Hillwood, I finally convinced my father and uncle to sell out. Having grown up around trailers and RVs all of my life makes this a natural business for me. As for my wife, that's another story.

I met Katie at former U.S. Nationals winner Hugh "Fuzzy" Norton's garage when she was completing her first dragster. I was building, with Fuzzy's help, my first Super Gas Beretta, and I never dreamed (well, maybe) that one day Katie and I would be married, but I lucked out and fate dealt Katie the odd hand: me. We have raced together ever since, though Katie has been gracious enough to let me hit the road while she stays home with our two children, Kaylee and Jackson.

Fortunately, I have Jeremy Holmes, who works full time to keep our cars ready to win and gets everything to and from the track. We hired Jeremy last year because I just couldn't keep up with the race cars and running the business and the family. Something had to give, so we opened up the checkbook and found a way to make it work. Now, I can't imagine trying to get it all done without him. Also last year, my father-in-law Howard Seal decided to race again and bought a Super Stocker. He has raced since 1960, and he really wanted to come back.

After racing in the Super classes for many years now, I decided to step up to Top Sportsman this year. I love it. Top Sportsman is the real deal; it's a poor man's Pro Stock, if you will. I purchased a turnkey '04 Grand Am, and it took me to a thrilling 6.77 ride at more than 205 mph this year at the Division 2 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event in Gainesville. The adrenaline came back, just like the first time I drove down the quarter-mile. I can only imagine what a Top Fuel ride must feel like. Now I understand why those drivers are out of breath when they get out after a run. I just hope that we can continue at this pace. Racing Super Gas and Top Sportsman is challenging in terms of the maintenance alone. When Katie gets back to driving her Stocker, it will be interesting to have all four cars running at once.

The big problem my team has is trying to stay in the same motorhome and trailer because it's my job to sell them. Poor Jeremy has moved us in and out of so many truck and trailer packages that my employees are begging me to keep one for an entire season. But when a customer walks up and says "I'll take it," my reply is, "Pretty to look at, lovely to hold, show me the money, and consider it sold!" (Howard taught me that - smart guy!) Anyway, we've made a lot of calls to Danny Lagunas at Renegade to see if he can pry another dealer's stock unit away from them before we have to surrender our current rig. We always have plenty of inventory on order, and maybe someday we'll catch up with ourselves. Someday you might see us roll in with the Top Sportsman car on an open trailer. Don't laugh - we sell those as well.

That's not all that keeps us busy. We have been lucky to have the rest of our business running at full steam. We are also one of the East Coast's largest truck-accessory and trailer dealers. Selling truck caps, commercial van interiors, SUV accessories, hitches, and a full line of open and enclosed trailers keeps our sales and installation staff very busy. It's nice to see another happy customer leaving our sales lot with a quality product purchased from Hillwood.

Let me take this opportunity to thank our past, current, and future customers. I would also like to thank A.R.E. Truck Caps, Haulmark, Renegade, and Bri-Mar Trailers for their continued support of our business and racing efforts. Because of their help and our dedicated employees at Hillwood, I get to hit the NHRA trail often. We have been to seven NHRA events this year (including three rainouts) and have 13 more planned. I hope we will come out with a few wins, some new friends, and lots of great memories.