Roy Hill and Rockingham Dragway go way back. So far back, Hill adds, that Plymouth Dusters, Chevrolet Vegas and Ford Pintos were the race cars of choice.

Back in the day conversations always make the Pro Stock icon smile.

He reels off the names of friends no longer with us.

“Ronnie Sox … Don Nicholson … they were my heroes back then and they are still to this day,” Hill said.

The first time Hill played on the Rockingham drag strip was 1972.

Roy Hill and Rockingham Dragway go way back. So far back, Hill adds, that Plymouth Dusters, Chevrolet Vegas and Ford Pintos were the race cars of choice.

Back in the day conversations always make the Pro Stock icon smile.

He reels off the names of friends no longer with us.

“Ronnie Sox … Don Nicholson … they were my heroes back then and they are still to this day,” Hill said.

The first time Hill played on the Rockingham drag strip was 1972.

“I had just purchased an old Duster from Bobby Yowell,” Hill recalled.

Hill remembers vividly a Friday at the IHRA Rockingham event when Sox laid down a 9.51 elapsed time to take the pole.

“That was flying,” Hill said. “I had Sox & Martin go through my cylinder heads and we had just rebuilt the engines. Don Nicholson went out there and went an 9.51 as well. I was back in the middle of the pack to make my run.”

Hill smiles and swears, “I ran a 9.51 at 153 miles per hour.”

Was he legal?

“What brought that up?” Hill asked, and then laughed. “Sox and Martin did the heads. We rebuilt the short block. So, yes we were legal.

“I guess. I can’t remember exactly, I’ve had a couple of hard weeks.”

Then Hill takes on a serious tone.

“It was special just to be in the game with those guys,” Hill said. “I can’t remember how many rounds I went. But what I do remember is that I took that old Petty Mopar and ran with my heroes. That’s what I’ll carry with me to the grave.”

Hill won Rockingham a total of seven times in his near three decades of racing at the famed facility.   

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