Jan 9, 2005
\nTimaru, New Zealand \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u201c Team USA Scholarship driver Slade Miller encountered a wide range of emotions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and weather conditions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c during today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pair of Talley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Zealand Formula Ford Championship races at Timaru International Motor Raceway.<\/p>\n
Miller showed great promise during the morning\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 12-lap event, finishing eighth in the rain and turning some very promising lap times. Unfortunately, his high expectations for the weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 16-lap finale, run in dry conditions, soon turned to frustration when the car\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s handling deteriorated and he was further handicapped by a lack of straightline speed.<\/p>\n
“It was just a dog,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Miller after finishing 14th in Race Three. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The understeer was the most horrendous I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever had in a Formula Ford. It was just scrubbing [speed] terribly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Race Two on Sunday morning was held in very wet conditions and saw Miller start 10th in his white, red and blue Team USA Scholarship\/Doug Mockett & Company Stealth\/Van Diemen. A good start saw him move to eighth on the opening lap, and he was soon piling the pressure on New Zealand veteran Simon Gamble\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Spectrum.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The visibility was horrible,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Miller. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I tried to make a pass a few times but it was really tough because when you got off line, it was really slippery and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lose all the grip.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Miller was reasonably content with an eighth-place finish in a race dominated by teen-aged Christchurch driver Andy Knight, taking the checkered flag in the midst of a train of cars headed by fourth-place finisher (and former series champion) Phil Hellebrekers.<\/p>\n
Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 14th-place finish in the final race was enough to take his points tally to 102 for the weekend \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ranking him an impressive seventh among the 22-car field. Miller had been expecting more, but he still acquitted himself well and has much to look forward to as he will contest next weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Zealand Grand Prix at Teretonga Park, Invercargill \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most southerly race track.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was looking for better results but this has still been a great experience,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the 18-year-old from Edmond, Oklahoma. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have met a lot of good people and learned a lot about what makes these cars work. It has been good to drive in all sorts of different conditions, and this is a very competitive series. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m looking forward to going on to Teretonga and moving up toward the front with the Team USA Scholarship car.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Race 2 results (12 laps): 1 Andy Knight (NZ), Stealth\/Van Diemen Evo2, 15m 44.603s, 68.143 mph; 2 Hamish Cross (NZ), Stealth\/Van Diemen, +19.286s; 3 Shannon O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien (AUS), Van Diemen RF03; 4 Phil Hellebrekers (NZ), Spectrum 010; 5 Matthew Radisich (NZ), Van Diemen RF02; 6 Christina Orr (NZ), Stealth\/Van Diemen; 8 Slade Miller (USA), Stealth\/Van Diemen. Fastest lap: Knight, 1m 15.111s, 71.476mph.<\/p>\n
Race 3 results (16 laps): 1 Knight, 20m 48.556s, 68.798 mph; 2 O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien, +0.154s; 3 Cross; 4 Gamble; 5 Orr; 6 Radisich; 14 Miller. Fastest lap: O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien, 1m 06.254s, 81.031mph.<\/p>\n
Talley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Zealand Formula Ford Championship weekend points: 1 Knight, 217; 2 O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien, 202; 3 Cross, 187; 4 Gamble, 145; 5 Radisich, 136; 6 Orr, 114, 7 Miller, 102; etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jan 9, 2005 Timaru, New Zealand \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u201c Team USA Scholarship driver Slade Miller encountered a wide range of emotions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and weather conditions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c during today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pair of Talley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Zealand Formula Ford Championship races…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1463,"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\/1462"}],"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=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1464,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions\/1464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}