(By Eric Rood) – “Run what you brung” means a lot of things to different people, but it’s hard to imagine the ultimate example of that phrase isn’t Mark Nienhouse ripping up a hill climb in Michigan with his Modified oval-racing car. The video is a bit dizzying if you’re used to seeing a Modified’s sheet metal going around and around under the lights of a local oval. Here, Nienhouse tears up the short run of the Empire Hill Climb Revival in northern Michigan, winding through a tree-lined stretch of road.
Peering through the steeply angled windscreen and nestled in the Modified’s cockpit, Nienhouse manages to turn his monster right and does so, pretty well, it turns out. His fifth time up the hill came in just 23.98 seconds, which was good enough to make him Empire’s King of the Hill in 2014 by a half second. The Empire Hill Climb takes place in Empire, Michigan, of course, starting on the small town’s edge and climbing a half-mile around eight turns. As the name suggests, the new version is a revival of the annual climb that ran from 1964 to 1980. This year’s Empire Hill Climb runs September 24.
