This message was edited on
April 07, 2007 at
12:57:59 PM by Gary Thomas
17-year-old Brett Miller picks up second career sprint car win in Chico
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA - April 7, 2007... A little luck mixed in with a fast race car helped propel Chico’s Brett Miller to his second career victory Friday night at Silver Dollar Speedway’s Point Race #2. Last August Brett became the youngest driver to ever win a 410 sprint car main event at Silver Dollar Speedway and at the end of the season received the co-rookie of the year award for the track. This year he came back looking once again to compete for the track championship, but in addition to that he’s also competing full time with the traveling stars of the Golden State Challenge Series. Each week you can see Brett’s confidence building as he and the team are working extremely well together running at tracks for just the first or second time. The added experience early in the season has been paying off and on Friday night everything came together with a little luck added, which is always a huge part of racing.
The Care Free Pools, Care Free Custom Graphics, Aspire Homes No. 1x team came into the night on the strength of a seventh place finish last Friday in the Silver Dollar Speedway opener, and came into the second round looking to improve upon that. Brett was the 24th driver to hit the speedway for qualifying and his fastest lap 12.723 placed the Jandy Pools, Platinum Powder Coating, JP’s Paint & Body Works Maxim, seventh quickest overall in of the 30 car field.
The track was very fast for the heats and with only the top four transferring out, getting a good start was key. Brett started from the inside of the third row in heat three and made a sweet move in the first set of corners to place the Country Craftsman, RPM powered No. 1x into fourth. It was an intense heat race as he hounded third place running Matt Shelton every step of the way. However, fifth place running Kevin Sharrah was right on Brett’s tail for the majority of the contest as well, but Sharrah was driving into the turns extremely hard and Brett was able to beat him off exit every time. The final lap saw Sharrah try hard, but the "Catfish" stood his ground and claimed the fourth and final transfer spot into the night’s main event.
The number six pill was pulled for the inversion and it placed the Wolfe Electric, Al’s Concrete, A1A Performance Muffler No. 1x inside the second row. The track remained fast for the feature and had started to develop a few ruts like it did last Friday. It wasn’t as choppy as last week, but there were still some areas that bounced you around and forced the drivers to get up on the wheel. As the green flag came out, Brett fell into fifth and remained there until a red flag was unveiled for Matt Shelton who was running in second. Seven laps were completed and it moved Brett up to fourth for the restart. He ran smoothly in fourth until the two cars battling for second, Jonathan Allard and Brandon Wimmer, made contact in turn three which sent both of them flipping off the turn.
"The Catfish" steered clear of the mayhem and was set to move up to second for the restart. As cars were getting pushed back off, leader Sean Becker came to a stop in turn three. This changed the whole complexion of the race as Becker was pushed off the speedway back to the pits with mechanical gremlins. Brett now found himself in the lead but he had a some hard charging drivers breathing down his neck. Running in second was former King of California Jason Statler and third was former Silver Dollar Speedway track champion Stephen Allard. Statler looked to the top in turn two as the green flag came back out, but Brett powered off the corner and charged out to a commanding lead within a couple laps. As the white flag waved Brett had pulled away from the field and drove a flawless last lap to pick up his second career sprint car win.
The very happy 17-year-old did a couple of victory laps and pulled a huge wheelie down the front stretch in celebration. After the races in the pits Brett didn’t know what to say except for, "I knew we’d at least get a top five!" Silver Dollar Speedway PR guru and announcer Troy Hennig stated over the loud speaker that it was one of the wildest races he’d seen in nine years!" The Care Free Pools team also received some nice ink from Hennig in the race recap, which stated, "The whole Miller racing crew and family are a big part of Silver Dollar Speedway and it was nice to see the youngster get another win under his belt."
Tonight Brett and the Care Free Pools No. 1x team will be in action with the Golden State Challenge Series at the Antioch Speedway. Brett comes into the night sixth in GSC points in what will be his first night of ever racing at the Antioch bullring.
For more news and info on Brett Miller and Care Free Pools Racing, log onto http://www.brettmillerracing.net
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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