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Photo by http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
Night filled with brake problems nets 11th place finish in Quincy for Brett Miller
By Gary Thomas
Quincy, CA – June 23, 2009…Competing at the long 3/8 mile American Valley Speedway dirt oval on Saturday Chico's Brett Miller fought through a night of competition filled with issues and brought home an 11th place finish in the 30 lap feature to conclude the evening.
The event marked Miller's first start of the season with the California Sprint Car Civil War Series and was disappointed with the outcome after various issues plagued the team during the night. "We had a really fast car all night so it was pretty frustrating to have the brake problems and then have the front wing get knocked sideways in the main event," Miller said. "I think we definitely had a top five car and would have been right up there if we wouldn't have had the problems."
In his career Miller has experienced highs and lows at the scenic American Valley Speedway in Quincy, which include scoring a fourth place finish during the inaugural Golden State Challenge Series visit in 2007 and a fast-time effort in the first Civil War appearance at the track last season, but he was also involved in a scary front stretch flip at the 3/8 mile oval with GSC in May of last year.
This past Saturday's event began with rear end problems in hot laps and with not enough time to get it fixed he was forced to qualify without the luxury of brakes, but was still able to hit his marks and time-in ninth fastest aboard the Care Free Pools, Simpson Race Products, Wolfe Electric, Live Energy Drink No. 1x. After qualifying the Care Free Pools Racing team changed rear ends, but the issues didn't stop there as brake problems arose during Miller's heat race once again.
Lining-up fourth in the heat Miller charged up into second early on and despite having no brakes the 19 year-old executed a nice late race pass to pick up victory in the 10 lap contest and transfer into the main event, where he would start from the fifth row. Miller would move forward quickly to make his way into the top five, but on an early race restart a lapped car didn't take off and it caused the field to bunch up, which resulted in the Chico driver hitting the car in front of him knocking the nose wing sideways.
The incident also saw Miller get hit from behind and if things couldn't get any worse the brakes failed following the contact and he was forced to run the rest of the feature with a cockeyed nose wing and no brakes yet again. "The Catfish" did his best as the race went on, but lost a few spots as he couldn't hold the car in turns three and four like he wanted to. Miller would go on to cross under the checkered in 11th place after 30 laps of racing. "I have to thank my guys for working hard tonight and we're just looking forward to getting back to Chico on Friday and seeing if we can get this car up front," Miller said.
This Friday's event at Silver Dollar Speedway will mark the 11th point race in the Feather Falls Casino championship series and Miller will go into it sitting eighth in the current 410 sprint car standings, 44 points back of leader Jonathan Allard. The previous point race on June 12 at SDS was the first show on the new track surface and it saw Miller qualify third fastest in the field, but contact with one of the big white tires in the infield caused him to finish last in his heat race.
With the 0 pill then being drawn and no b-main being run it forced him to start 17th in the feature event and the Chico native was able to move forward and finish ninth, running much of the contest with a broken rear shock. "The track was pretty rough and interesting during the first race on it, but we'll just have to give it some time to get worked in," Miller commented. "Having a broken shock didn't help things and it made it a pretty physically demanding main event so I'm ready to head back and see if we can get a win. It seems like we've barely raced in Chico this year with the rainouts, but things should start picking up and it'll let us get into a rhythm as the rest of the season goes on."
More news and info on Chico, CA's Brett Miller can be found at the http://www.brettmillerracing.net
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After fighting through brake problems last Saturday Brett Miller and the Care Free Pools Racing team will be looking to rebound this Friday night at the Silver Dollar Speedway as the Feather Falls Casino 410 season kicks back into gear. Photo by http://www.graphxdesigns.com
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