7-year-old Mike Hill hopes to zip through ranks of race car
driving
By Josh Koehn Staff Writer
San Jose – Like clothes in the dryer, Mike Hill knows what it’s like to go for a tumble.
During the second to last lap of the season opening Formula BMW race in Tooele, Utah, two months ago, Hill was looking to make his move to the front of the pack when, “someone charged under me and T-boned me and I triple-flipped,” Hill said.
The worst crash in Hill’s racing career was ugly. Luckily for the 17-year-old race car driver from Gilroy, he escaped without a single scratch or bruise.
“Mike and God are buddies,” said Cathy Yovanov, Hill’s mother. “Everything that happens on the race track is OK with me. He’s rolled his car a couple times, he flipped his car in Utah three times, but he’s walked away fine.”
This weekend, Hill will be walking into his own backyard to compete in the third annual San Jose Grand Prix. He will be maneuvering KMA Racing’s No. 53 car in and out of familiar downtown turns during races on Saturday and Sunday, with qualifying runs scheduled the day before each race.
Ironically, the young man who regularly hits speeds as high as 150 miles per hour on the race track was only allowed to drive on residential streets a year ago.
“I’ve been driving for seven years now,” Hill said. “(The driving test) was interesting. To me, all the rules of the road are a lot different than driving a race car. Taking the driver’s test wasn’t challenging … it was just learning the rules.”
Hill was first introduced to the rules of racing while watching his stepfather, Jack, compete in a Corvette. Little time passed before a 10-year-old Hill was zipping around tracks in a Quarter Midget car. The adrenaline rush of racing against other kids, and actually winning, was all he needed to be hooked. After a couple of years he moved up to go-carts and then to Formula Ford race cars last season. This year he moved over to the BMW series.
“When you’re a little kid, racing go-carts and Quarter Midgets is all you want to do, all the time. It’s just the best fun in the world,” Hill said. “But once you make that jump to cars, you realize it’s fantastic and fun and everything, but you can also make a living out of doing this. And then you get this sparkle in your eyes and you say, ‘Wow, this could be a job? This could be the best job on earth.’ ”
At the midpoint of the season, Hill is looking to take his team to the top of the standings and rebound after a slow start. With Formula BMW being a series designed to develop young racers, Hill hopes to one day compete in Formula One events which are two levels above his current series.
“There’s really no set ladder for (advancing in) racing,” Hill said. “There’s so many series across the board, like I said, Formula One, Champ Car, IRL, those are all the peeks.”
When told he left out NASCAR, Hill hit the brakes and put it into reverse.
“I really have nothing against NASCAR. NASCAR is awesome to watch, those guys go 200 miles per hour. I’d do it if I got paid to, but my passion is open-wheel racing.”
Being so accomplished at such a young age hasn’t been without its drawbacks though. Hill wasn’t allowed to play football his senior year because of a contract that stipulated no involvement in contact sports. He also had the unenviable task of telling his girlfriend he wouldn’t be able to attend Senior Prom.
“She was sooo mad,” Hill said. “But it’s part of the sacrifices you have to make to be a professional race car driver.”
With that kind of attitude, Hill looks to be on the fast track to success.
