Jan 15, 2005
\nInvercargill, New Zealand (January 15, 2005) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u201c The misfortune that has dogged Team USA Scholarship driver Slade Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trip to New Zealand continued today, leaving him well down the grid in qualifying and then forcing him into the pits just four laps into the first of the weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s three Formula Ford races at Teretonga Park.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a tough day,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Miller. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nothing has gone right and we have our work cut out for us tomorrow. The good news is that the car seems to be handling well, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure we can move up if we get the problems sorted.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one and only qualifying session took place in extremely blustery conditions this afternoon, and ended with Miller posting a best lap of 1m 03.499s, placing him 16th among the impressive field of 33 cars.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There was a crosswind of more than 20mph on the front straightway which made getting around the corners a bit tricky,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d related Miller. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The handling would change in the middle of the corner, depending on how hard the wind was gusting at that point in time. Then the car developed a slight misfire, which got worse and worse. The only reason I went as fast as I did was I got a good tow from Jayant Singh.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 12-lap race started at around 4.30 pm, and was red-flagged after just two laps following a multi-car incident in The Loop \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a fast, left-hand sweeper which follows the long front straightaway. One of the cars involved was Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Team USA Scholarship\/Doug Mockett & Company Stealth\/Van Diemen.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was on the outside, trying to make a pass into Turn One, and three cars got together just ahead and started spinning,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Miller. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My only option was to try and go around the outside, but I ended up sliding into the gravel.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old from Edmond, Oklahoma, was lucky. His car was undamaged and he was able to regain his original position for the restarted race. Unfortunately, however, the engine refused to run cleanly, and he dropped back through the field before retiring to the pits after just four laps.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The plan going into the race was to go for a good lap time, because that would move me up on the grid for tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s race [the grid for which would be determined by a combination of lap times established both in qualifying and the opening race],\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Miller, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but the engine started misfiring right away and just got worse.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The team worked long into the evening, changing as many of the electrical components as possible prior to Sunday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s schedule, which will comprise another 12-lap race in the morning followed by the prestigious New Zealand Grand Prix which will be run over 40 laps, with a brief break for refueling at half-distance.<\/p>\n
Today, in Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absence, four cars enacted a thrilling battle for the lead before Auckland veteran Jason Liefting emerged to take the checkered flag narrowly ahead of pole-sitter Andy Knight, from Christchurch, who out-braked Australian Shannon O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien into the final corner. Queenstown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Marc Doran finished a very close fourth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jan 15, 2005 Invercargill, New Zealand (January 15, 2005) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u201c The misfortune that has dogged Team USA Scholarship driver Slade Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trip to New Zealand continued today, leaving him well down the grid in qualifying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1457,"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\/1456"}],"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=1456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1458,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions\/1458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}