Hillarey Sloan - Feature Story

[LNorton]

Hillarey Sloan - "American Woman"
May 26, 2009
Broadway,NC

By Angela Macy

Broadway North Carolina’s Hillarey Sloan has been known to describe herself as the “girlest tomboy”, being equally as happy in the shoe section of Nordstrom as she would be staging up on the starting line at Rockingham. Sloan follows the IHRA tour where she has had solid performances in 2009 thus far, capturing the Ironman at the Mooresville stop recently and leading the Raiders divisional points over Richard Alford by 9 points.

A fourth generation racer, Sloan got her start early on while still in the womb. “Both of my grandfathers raced, my great grandfather raced, as well as both my parents; my mother actually raced early on in her pregnancy with me!” laughed Hillarey. Following her birth, Hillarey was at the track at two weeks old and racing became a way of life from there on out. “My paternal grandfather also operated and managed Sanford Dragstip in the early 1950’s until the late 1970’s. My grandmother ran the concessions and my father and uncle helped with whatever needed to be done”.

Sloan’s racing background has lead her all over the country, going as far as Pomona and Las Vegas as a spectator, and racing as far away as Norwalk, Ohio. “My favorite tracks are still close to home though, being Rockingham Dragway followed closely by Piedmont Dragway.”

Hillarey’s current ride is a 1971 Plymouth Duster powered by a 360 cubic inch engine with R/T heads. Running in IHRA Stock Eliminators F/Crate Motor class, her current fastest lap has been a 10.47 at 126 miles per hour at legal weight. Tim Sloan, Hillarey’s father, is the owner of Sloan Racing Engines based out of Sanford and is the brains behind the horsepower under the hood of Hillarey’s duster. Hillarey finds herself being a guinea pig a lot as Tim often times using her car for research and development on other racing combinations he is working on for his customers.

Sloan made her first pass down a strip at the age of 16, in a 1985 Dodge Daytona, which had a 4 cylinder with a turbo. She then moved on to race her street driven Mustang, later upgrading to her current ride at age 19. “My first pass down the track in my Duster was quite funny” mentioned Sloan, “My Dad accidentally put a 3000 chip in the MSD box for my high-side chip. When I left the line it immediately hit the chip. I knew exactly what the sound was, so I just inched down the track, under 3000 rpm’s of course”.

On the contrary, Sloan has had other mishaps that weren’t as entertaining. “My scariest pass was at a Stock/Super Stock combo race at Darlington a few years back. My car did a huge wheel stand and landed hard, knocking out a large chunk of concrete, and I had feared it’d damaged my oil pan. Thankfully it was in a time run but I still followed through with the pass as I needed the information, but kept my eye on the oil pressure the whole time. I stopped after the finish line and got out and looked under my car to see if the pan was dented. There was white residue all over the pan, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.”

Sloan notes her 2001 National event win at Rockingham as one of her proudest accomplishments. “It was my first and so far only National event win, I did runner up at Virginia Motorsports Park in 2003 though.”

While most racers have a few superstitions, Sloan is no exception. “If I find a penny on its head I will pick it up and keep it until I lose. I will then pass it on to someone else”. And while she doesn’t have any racing nemesis, she did mention she dreads running other female racers. “I would much rather race a guy, I get more nervous racing against another girl.”

Racers she admires are Peter Biondo, Anthony Bertozzi, Scott Macy and Michael Beard, all respectively great drivers. “I let Scott Macy borrow my car last year to run at Farmington’s Divisional; he ended up winning the race. Since he’s proven he knows how to win in my car, I figured I better listen to him. He’s offered me the best racing advice I’ve been given, and it’s helped me a lot. I had to run him at Rockingham though and beat him. The running joke in my pit is my schooling is now over!”

Sloan’s future racing plans are to attend the remainder of the Division 9 IHRA tour events as well as run three or four National events and hopefully a few Sportsman Nationals. “I look forward to going to Richmond Dragway in a few weeks” commented Sloan “It’s a track I haven’t been to yet but have wanted to attend”. She hopes the two race weekend will help her increase her lead in the divisional points.

When the thirty-year-old Medical Transcriptionist isn’t racing she enjoys cooking, shopping, listening to music and trying out new restaurants “I love all kinds of food, Italian is probably my favorite, but I also enjoy Japanese, Mexican, Chinese and I even like Sushi!” mentioned Hillarey.

Hillarey would like to thank Sloan Racing Engines, TCI, Comp Cams, Harland Sharp, Total Seal and Ross Pistons for their continued support over the years, as well as her parents, Tim and Shelia, her dog Amos and all of her track friends. “Racing would be no fun without friends” Sloan said.

[Chris1529]

great story. good luck to you all at Richmond.

[tpoh815]

Good luck at Richmond!