PDRA Promotions Ramp Up as Mike ‘The Hitman’ Hill Joins the Team
PITTSBORO, NC – Mike Hill, better known as ‘The Hitman’ to his competitors, has been a standout in outlaw racing 
for years. He cut his teeth street racing during his teens before he wised up and switched to the safety of the strip. He quickly fell in with the outlaw racing scene as it gained popularity among racers in the Southeast. While Hill’s racing operation saw a lot of success, he desired to use his passion to also make a living.
The opportunity came along to team up with famed promoter George Howard and Hill quickly found his second niche in drag racing. “Racing was my biggest hobby,” he told. “Why not take something you love and try to make a living off of it? I started doing promotions around 2000 working with George Howard at Huntsville Dragway. We put on a race for Outlaw 10.5 with $20,000 to win. We started from there, putting up big money for Outlaw 10.5 cars and it just grew.”
Since then Hill has promoted some of the country’s biggest outlaw events, including the $90,000 Pro Mod race at Carolina Dragway in 2009. Now Hill has turned his attention to the Professional Drag Racers Association. He is joining the organization’s team of promoters to help further PDRA notoriety and success.
“I like the organization,” Hill said of the PDRA. “I love Pro Mod racing. This type of series has always been enjoyable to me, and I’m the type I like to give a helping hand if I can. I want to see this organization stick around. The PDRA has good owners. It’s really good to see racers actually own the organization. For them it’s all about racing and having a good organization to race in rather than being worried about making money. I love it and I want to see it survive. I want to be a part of putting people in the stands.”
While Hill was a racer first, he takes his promotional duties seriously and has hung up his helmet in order to focus on promotions and tuning.
“George taught me a lot about being a promoter and racing at the same time. There have been times when I’m trying to race in an event I promoted, and I’ve actually parked my car and gone to make sure the event is run well. Most of the tracks I work with, though, do a good job of running their events, so once I’m done with the promotional side of things, I can focus on racing. Right now though, my car is parked. I sent it back to Precision Chassis in Pennsylvania, the original builder, to get some updating done. We took the engine and transmission out and put it in a small tire car. I was going to purchase a new engine, but now there’s someone interested in buying it. I still don’t know whether I’m going to sell it or not, but between promotions and tuning for two cars, I really don’t have time to race myself.
“I love what I’m doing,” Hill continued. “I get a similar thrill out of tuning. I see the cars I tune go out there and do good and I’m just as happy as if I were driving. I hope that my fans, followers and supporters will continue following us through the PDRA.”
Hill currently tunes George Williams’ ‘68 Tommy Mauney Camaro. Williams plans to debut a second car later this year that his son, Scoot, will pilot. Besides tuning and working with PDRA promotions, Hill will continue his usual promotional events, such as his Battle of the Big Dogs event October 9-10 at Carolina Dragway.
“I do a lot of hands on, flyers, handing people tickets personally. I have my own way of promoting. I’m going to work hard and see what we can get started at Memphis.”
The PDRA ventures to Memphis International Raceway August 20-22 for the seventh stop on their sophomore tour, the Memphis Drags. Find event information and ticket coupons at www.pdra660.com.
