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Photo by http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
Brett Miller Racing Mini Gold Cup Recap
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – March 17, 2009…Competing at the 23rd annual Mini Gold Cup this past weekend 19 year-old sprint car racer Brett Miller was able to make his first career World of Outlaws Sprint Series A-main start during opening night of the double-header event held at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico.
Miller had made previous World of Outlaw feature's at the Silver Dollar Speedway, but those had come during preliminary main events, which don't officially count as A-main's with the traveling 410 Sprint Car series. This season marked the first time since 1992 that the "Greatest Show on Dirt" has sanctioned the annual season opener for the Chico, California based quarter-mile.
Opening night at the 23rd annual Mini Gold Cup saw extremely fast racing conditions to open the night as a total of 17 drivers broke the previous all-time track record in qualifying. Miller's quickest lap of 11.436 placed the Care Free Pools, Simpson Race Products, Al's Concrete sprinter 29th fastest out of 54 cars.
The qualifying time put Miller in the fourth row of his heat race and when the green flag dropped he was able to quickly move his way up to the fifth and final transfer spot. The Chico driver was forced to hold off former World of Outlaw champ Danny Lasoski for the entire 10 lap distance and he was able to do just that and transfer into the main event. Unfortunately throttle issues in the feature contributed to a pair of spins forcing him out of the 40 lap contest early on.
Strong day-time winds on Saturday that seemingly never stopped created much different racing conditions the following night as the track dried out very quickly. Miller would time in 20th quickest in the 54 car field on Saturday to put him in the third row of his heat race. He would settle into the fifth and final transfer spot early on, but lose a pair of spots to Terry McCarl and Wayne Johnson, which forced him to run the night's B-main.
By the semi-main event the track surface had become very slick and began to take rubber with most everyone using the bottom groove of the speedway. Miller started fifth and would settle into that spot at the waving of the green flag as he began to hound Mark Hall for the final transfer spot into the feature. Miller's Brian Cannon tuned Platinum Powder Coating, Wolfe Electric No. 1x seemed to be faster than Hall, but passing opportunities were hard to come by with the way the track was.
As Miller tried his hardest to make something happen with Hall, a mid-race restart spelled disaster for the 19 year-old driver as the motor sputtered and he spun in turn two. As Miller sat stopped a couple other cars were collected and knocked the front nose wing loose forcing him to pit and get it removed. Miller would restart and end the night with a 13th place finish in the 12 lap contest.
This coming weekend will find Miller and the Care Free Pools Racing team in action at the Placerville Speedway during the opening round of action for the California Sprint Car Civil War Series. Miller is expected to compete in select events with the traveling 360 series as he tries to make the top 32 in points to lock himself into the Pacific Sprint Cup Invitational held during Gold Cup week at Silver Dollar Speedway in September.
More news and info on Chico, CA's Brett Miller can be found at http://www.brettmillerracing.net
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Brett Miller shown in action during the 23rd annual Mini Gold Cup at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. Photo by http://www.graphxdesigns.com
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