Jan 16, 2005
\nInvercargill, New Zealand \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u201c Rapidly changing weather conditions characterized today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Zealand Grand Prix race meeting at Teretonga Park Raceway. Unfortunately, the one thing that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change was Slade Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s luck.
\nThe 18-year-old from Edmond, Oklahoma, never had a chance to display his true worth, as his first race this morning ended after just six laps due to engine troubles, and then his hopes of a solid result in the 40-lap New Zealand Grand Prix were halted just after the halfway mark when he was unable to avoid a rival who had spun directly in front of his Team USA Scholarship\/Doug Mockett & Company Stealth\/Van Diemen.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much I can say,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said a bitterly disappointed Miller, after retiring with a broken right-front suspension. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Gary (Lovie) spun in front of me, and in the wet conditions, I had nowhere to go. I tried to find a way past on the outside but once I hit the wet grass, there was no saving it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Former New Zealand Formula Ford Champion John Crawford\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Motorsports Solutions team had worked hard on Saturday evening to try to solve the engine woes that had plagued Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s car. Various electrical components were changed, but to no avail. The engine was still drastically short on power in Sunday morning\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s race (which was held on a damp but drying track and was red-flagged following an incident on the first lap), and Miller pulled into the pits after six laps with some ominous noises emanating from the rear of the car.<\/p>\n
A broken starter motor lead and mounting was found to be the cause, and crew chief Richard Box again set to work on effecting repairs in time for the main event, the New Zealand Grand Prix. Once more, though, Miller found himself slipping down the order as soon as the lights went green. After starting 16th, he fell as low as 21st but had made up four places by the time the first 20-lap portion was completed.<\/p>\n
The engine again refused to perform properly, but Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hopes were raised just a little during the brief intermission (to allow the cars to be refueled) when rain began to fall. A good start and a couple of incidents in front of him saw Miller rise to 12th on the opening lap. However, next time through The Loop \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the fast, left-hander that follows the long front straightaway \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Lovie lost control directly in front of Miller and his day was done.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Of course, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the way we wanted it to end,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Miller. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The racing has been a struggle but overall this has been a good experience. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve met a lot of great people and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been able to run against some good competition. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m very grateful to have been given this opportunity. I really want to thank Doug Mockett and all the former winners of the Team USA Scholarship who have made this happen for me \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Jimmy Vasser, Bryan Herta, Buddy Rice, Memo Gidley, A.J. Allmendinger and Bryan Sellers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and all the other supporters. For them to put all this effort behind me means a great deal, and I hope I can somehow pay them back in the future.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The New Zealand Grand Prix was first held in 1950 and boasts an illustrious list of winners including Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, John Surtees, Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and Keke Rosberg. Formula Ford veteran Simon Gamble, from Auckland, finally added his name to that list by passing the similar Australian-built Spectrum of fellow New Zealander Jason Liefting three laps from the finish to score a popular victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jan 16, 2005 Invercargill, New Zealand \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u201c Rapidly changing weather conditions characterized today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Zealand Grand Prix race meeting at Teretonga Park Raceway. Unfortunately, the one thing that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change was Slade Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s luck. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1455,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions\/1455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}