We’re getting married!

Mike and Hillary met at the final race of the 2020 season at Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut. The stands were packed due to everyone wanting to get out for the last race of a very short season due to well, you know, Co^!+. Hillary went to the races alone as she always had and sat in her favorite spot. Mike came alone that night and couldn’t find a seat in his normal spot. He saw an opening in front of Hillary, came up and asked her if the seat was taken. It wasn’t. They proceeded to have random conversations throughout the night about their favorite drivers and her growing up in New Hampshire watching her dad race a late model. And him explaining his Uncle Charlie’s connection to the driver of #50, Ronnie Williams. They quickly found out that they both cheered for Ryan Preece who made a special appearance that night. After the race, Mike was packing up and put his hand out to shake Hillary’s and say, “by the way, I’m Mike. Hopefully I see you next season”. She exchanged her name and agreed to hope to see him then. Little did he know, the next day Hillary tried to find him on Facebook, which he didn’t have and Instagram. But she only found his Amherst PD email address, which she thought, no way am I emailing him! She gave up on the search and thought he must have a girlfriend or not be interested. Little did she know, Mike went to his truck and texted one of his friends (his best man) to tell him he just met the girl he is going to marry someday. As he thought, what an idiot, because he didn’t ask for her number. About a week later (3 days after her birthday), she received an Instagram follow request. IT WAS HIM!! They started messaging and went on their first date November 1, 2020 to Longhorn Steakhouse (surprise, surprise! For those of you who don’t know, Mike loves Longhorn). If you ask Mike, he’ll say it was a good date, but ended with Hillary “running away to her car”. She says that is not what happened and she was really nervous. The second date he picked her up and they went to dinner and Ax throwing, where he did not have mercy on her. With both of them being competitive, she did not like this. But he did not care, he wasn’t backing down. They continued to go on dates and take it slow as they both had been through some rough relationships. However, they quickly decided they wanted to get 2021 Stafford Seasons passes so they could go to the races Friday nights together. After a lot of racing, camping, traveling, and other fun adventures together, they decided they had had enough of long distance. In June 2022, Hillary sold her house in Bristol, CT and she and her two boys (cats) moved in with Mike to Granby, MA. On August 27th they unexpectedly decided to take in Mike’s dog from a previous relationship, Moose. They have a full house of love and furr and a yard full of Mike’s “toys”!!

Mike and Hillary went to the races Friday night, like clockwork. While they were sitting in the same seats they had met in, Mike pulled out a box and opened it. There was an engagement ring in the box. He asked Hillary, “will you marry me?” Hillary was in shock and after taking her hand off of her mouth, she said yes. They went for a walk where it was more quiet and talked. She called her mom and he texted his family the news. After forcing the ring on (the band was a little small, but she didn’t care, she had been waiting for this moment and loved the ring. She was wearing it!) they took some selfies with it and texted more friends and family. They went back into the stands to let their “racing family” know the news. For the first time at a race, they were both distracted and missed what was going on on the race track. It ended up being a cold and long night, but as always, it was a great one because they were at the track together.