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Brett Miller races to runner-up finish at Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – July 13, 2008…Young Brett Miller went into this past weekend’s event at the Silver Dollar Speedway fresh off an eighth place run with the Golden State Challenge Series the previous weekend and kept up the momentum on Friday night, racing to a season best second place finish.
During the week Miller spent time helping to fight the fires in the surrounding areas that had continued to rage, but was able to take time off to allow him to compete in another double-header weekend of action at Silver Dollar Speedway. Going into Friday night’s festivities he sat eighth in the Feather Falls Casino standings, having ran nine of the eleven 410 point races.
Miller started off the event on Friday by timing in 13th fastest aboard the Care Free Pools, Platinum Powder Coating Maxim. It then put the 18 year-old on the front row of the night’s opening heat race and he jumped into the lead as the green lights came on. Miller went on to pull away from the field and drove off for his first heat race victory of the Friday night point season.
When the 25 lap main event hit the speedway the “Catfish” found himself starting in the 10th position and with the track still being very fast it made it crucial for drivers to get up on the wheel. Miller steadily made his way forward as the race went on and did a great job in traffic to put himself in the top five by the halfway point. He then proceeded to make a great move on a mid-race restart to charge around the outside of Keven Sharrah to take over the third spot, but a caution just after negated the pass.
When the green waved again he sliced to the bottom of Sharrah to take the position and then went after Mark Hall for the runner-up spot. Another restart was seen however, as the race wound down and a big puff of smoke came out of Hall’s machine during it, which resulted in Hall slowing and leaving Miller nowhere to go, causing him to get held up and dropping a few spots.
Thankfully the yellow waved before a lap was completed though and the JP’s Paint & Body, Wolfe Electric No. 1x was able to restart in the runner-up spot. Miller continued to drive the wheels off the car and was able to hold off a strong late race challenge from Sharrah to bring home a nice second place finish behind current Golden State Challenge Series point leader Jonathan Allard. It was a big confidence booster for the whole team and gave some momentum heading into Saturday’s action.
After putting in a long day of work at the shop another fast and heavy track greeted the Care Free Pools Racing team on Saturday for the 18th race of the GSC King of California season. Miller began the show on a very good note as he qualified fourth fastest in the 27 car field and was in some good company as the top five in time trials was comprised of Tyler Walker, Jonathan Allard, Tim Kaeding, Miller and Bud Kaeding.
The youngster then started fifth in the opening heat race and was able to charge around the outside of Brad Bumgarner on the final turn to pick up a third place finish and score a spot in the dash. This is when things went bad however, as J. Allard hit a rut in turn one on the start of the dash and Miller had so much of a run that he couldn’t react in time and caught the rear of the 0 car, which launched the “Catfish” into the air sending him upside down hard off turns one and two.
Miller had the wind knocked out of him in the accident and was otherwise okay, but the same couldn’t be said about the car as damage was too severe to continue and the team was forced to scratch for the rest of the night. Allard came over to apologize following the dash, but it was just one of those deals that can happen in racing and the team will move on and look for good things next weekend.
This coming Friday will find Miller and Care Free Pools Racing throw the 360 engine back into the car to compete with the California Civil War Series at the Silver Dollar Speedway. During his most recent Civil War start the Chico driver set fast time and finished ninth in the main event.
More news and info on Brett Miller and 1x team can be found at http://www.brettmillerracing.com
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Brett Miller and the Care Free Pools Racing team are scheduled to compete with the Civil War Series in Chico on Friday night. Photo by Graph X Designs
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