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Photo by Johns Racing Photos
Brett Miller carves his way from 16th to 7th on Friday night in Chico
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – May 20, 2008…Chico’s Brett Miller returned to action and scored a seventh place finish for the fourth time in the first seven Feather Falls Casino point races at the Silver Dollar Speedway this past Friday night. The 18 year-old once again was forced to charge from the rear of the field and ran a smooth and solid race to keep him ninth in the track standings.
Miller was forced to take the previous Friday off at Silver Dollar Speedway due to effects suffered from the hard crash the weekend before in Quincy. “The Catfish” began the night by timing in 21st quickest out 36 cars and brought home a fourth place finish in his heat race to transfer into the main event. The 25 lap contest saw Miller start 16th and steadily make his way forward, avoiding a few on track incidents to get up to eighth by a lap 21 caution.
On the restart leader Tyler Walker spun off of turn one and it bumped the Care Free Pools, Platinum Powder Coating No. 1x up to the seventh position. Miller ran the final handful of laps solidly and brought the car home in seventh for his fourth top 10 finish of the Feather Falls Casino point season.
The Golden State Challenge 410 Series then made its way to Silver Dollar Speedway for Saturday’s 18th annual Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial. The event is one of the biggest sprint car races of the season in California and packed a lot of extra money and goodies during the night. A strong field of 43 cars was on the hand and unseasonably warm temperatures were seen during the day, which dried out the quarter-mile much quicker than usual.
A large curb had developed up high and with Miller drawing a late number it made it tricky to get a good lap since the ledge could upset the car if it wasn’t hit perfectly. Miller caught the cushion a little rough both laps and his fastest one of 12.810 put him 26th fastest, just two spots shy of making the heat race inversion.
By missing the inversion Miller was forced to start from the fourth row of his heat race, which just happened to be the most stacked one of the night. The drivers starting in front of him were Roger Crockett, Mike Henry, Sean Becker Tim Kaeding, Andy Forsberg and Stephen Allard, all drivers with multiple championships under their belts. Unfortunately Miller didn’t get a chance to do battle with them as another car lost power in front of him in turn two on the start and left him with nowhere to go.
Miller contacted the stalled car and it resulted in the JP’s Paint & Body, Al’s Concrete Maxim flipping onto its side. He was towed to the pits and the crew was able to fix some of the damage, but it wasn’t all right and he looped the car on the next start, forcing him to run the B-main. The Care Free Pools team went to work and got the car ready for the semi where Miller lined up in the 10th position. The youngster tried his best to get up to a transfer but came up a couple spots short finishing the 12 lap race in the eighth position.
The next scheduled event for Miller and the 1x team will be this Sunday’s California Civil War Series race at the Silver Dollar Speedway. The night of action will be run in conjunction with the annual Silver Dollar Fair and routinely attracts a large field of cars. Miller competed at the Civil War fair race in his rookie year of 2006 where he qualified 12th out of 60 cars and also finished 12th in the 30 lap feature. The 410's will take a couple weekends off at Silver Dollar Speedway before returning to action on Friday night June 6 during Ashley Furniture night.
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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