Jan 8, 2005
\nTimaru, New Zealand \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u201c A disappointing day for Team USA Scholarship driver Slade Miller ended in respectable fashion as he overcame a poor start to salvage a ninth-place finish in the first of three Talley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Zealand Formula Ford Championship races to be held this weekend at Timaru International Motor Raceway.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was reasonably pleased with the result from the standpoint that I knew I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a car that was capable of getting to the front in a very competitive field,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Miller, who struggled in the race with excessive understeer which meant he was unable to extract even close to the full potential of his car.<\/p>\n
After two days of testing in dry and reasonably warm conditions, Saturday dawned cool and wet. A steady rain had abated by mid-morning but the track was still predominantly wet when the 22 cars ventured out for the weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lone 20-minute qualifying session. Miller had no prior experience of his Stealth\/Van Diemen in the wet, and it soon became apparent that his setup was not working. After a quick spin which brought out the red flags, Miller, 18, from Edmond, Oklahoma, put his head down and tried his best to overcome the twin handicaps of the inclement weather and too much understeer.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Conditions were difficult, with the track progressively drying,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d related Miller, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but we went with too conservative a setup and just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the grip we expected.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Miller started the afternoon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 12-lap race from 11th on the grid, but his first-ever experience of a standing start did not go well – – \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a good launch off the line; I think I let the clutch out too fast,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he admitted – – and he completed the first lap in 15th place. Still, Miller once again applied himself to the task, and by the finish had worked his way through to ninth.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was a decent finish,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and at least we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get caught up in any carnage so now we can concentrate on trying to make the car faster for tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s races. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult with the weather conditions varying so much, but hopefully we can improve the car and then make some progress toward the front.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Funding for this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scholarship has been provided by Doug Mockett & Company, a Torrance, California-based supplier of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fine Architectural Hardware For Your Fine Furniture,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Champ Car team owner Dale Coyne, plus former Team USA Scholarship winners Rice, Vasser, Herta, Gidley, Allmendinger and former LynxoRacing Toyota Atlantic Championship standout Bryan Sellers (2001). In addition, Portland, Oregon-based Ivey Engines has provided the motive power for Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Stealth Van Diemen, and he is equipped with the world renowned Sparco racewear.<\/p>\n
Results (12 laps): 1 Shannon O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien (AUS), Van Diemen RF03, 13m 22.646s, 80.195 mph; 2 Andy Knight (NZ), Stealth\/Van Diemen Evo2, +3.7985s; 3 Hamish Cross (NZ), Stealth\/Van Diemen; 4 Jason Liefting (NZ), Spectrum 010; 5 Jayant Singh (NZ), Van Diemen RF92; 6 Simon Gamble (NZ), Spectrum 010; 9 Slade Miller (USA), Stealth\/Van Diemen. Fastest lap: O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien, 1m 06.088s, 81.165mph.<\/p>\n
Photo of Miller’s Stealth\/Van Diemen courtesy of Graham Blow Photography<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jan 8, 2005 Timaru, New Zealand \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u201c A disappointing day for Team USA Scholarship driver Slade Miller ended in respectable fashion as he overcame a poor start to salvage a ninth-place finish in the first…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1466,"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\/1465"}],"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=1465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1467,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions\/1467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}