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2004 Year In Review - Part 1
Welcome to the “Jeremy Miller Racing 2004 Year
in Review.” This is the first of three installments that will be
posted here on Jeremy-Miller.com throughout the fall and winter months
of 2004. At the end of each installment you will find many pictures to
view. For now we will look at the first three months of the year (and
even a little bit of 2003) as Jeremy prepared for the 2004 racing
season.
Jeremy Miller Racing started to think about the
2004 racing season even before 2003 was over. As early as October 2003,
Jeremy started to think about what racing series he wanted to be
involved with for the next year. Even at that time, Jeremy strongly
considered the
USAR Hooters Pro Cup series. However, no definite decisions could
be made until the winter months.
During the first months of 2004, Jeremy worked on
getting his dirt stock car ready for the year. He wanted to get the car
completely prepared so that he could concentrate on getting ready for
any asphalt racing that he might be able to do. During January, Jeremy
was able to make a definite decision to run in the
USAR Hooters Pro Cup series’ Northern Division. The task seemed a
little daunting at the time because most of the races were far from
home, but he felt ready to take that step.
The first step was to start the search for a
Hooters Pro Cup car, pit equipment and a hauler. After talking with
a few different people selling their cars and other equipment, Jeremy
found the complete package for sale by John Eckliff in Ohio. It took
weeks with many phone calls and meetings to finally decide that this was
the car and equipment Jeremy wanted to purchase. The process was very
long and sometimes confusing.
When a deal was very close to being struck, Jeremy
traveled with his brother, Jon, to
Lakeland, FL to attend the first
USAR Hooters Pro Cup race of 2004. Jeremy had the opportunity to
meet with different people to get a complete grasp on how the race
weekends operated. This gave him a chance to learn exactly what it
would take in terms of personnel and costs. Quite frankly, it also gave
him a “last chance” to be sure this was the series he wanted to race.
During the weekend Jeremy was able to meet with Mike Laughlin, Jr.,
driver of the number 7 car. He also was able to talk with his driving
instructor, Mike Loescher of
Finish Line Racing School, and help the number 43 car driven by
Brandon Collins. The weekend taught Jeremy a lot, including the fact
that
USAR has a great series to be involved with.
Jeremy returned home and was able to complete his
purchase of his own
USAR Hooters Pro Cup team. Overall the process took much longer and
much more work than was expected. As usual, everything turned out okay
with time. The car, equipment and hauler all came with just over a week
until
BF Goodrich held a tire test at
Mansfield Motorsports Speedway. Jeremy really needed to attend the
tire test just to give him a chance to get a feel for the car and start
a whole new learning process.
Jeremy started by just going over the car and all
the equipment. He knew that everything had to be ready to go for the
tire test. He did not want to waste any time by finding problems hours
away from home that could be fixed in the shop. Finally, on March 26th,
Jeremy left with his father and brother for the tire test the following
day.
Typical March weather was found that Saturday
morning in Ohio. Jeremy initially thought the tire test would never
happen, making the whole trip a waste. However, the weather changed and
crew at
Mansfield Motorsports Speedway got the track ready to go in good
time.
What started out looking like a bad day would turn
itself around quickly. As fate would have it, a man named Frank O’Neil
offered to help throughout the day. Little did Jeremy know that Frank
helped another
Hooters Pro Cup team and was crew chief for a late model team.
Frank helped more than he will ever know that day. He taught Jeremy a
lot about how different adjustments affected the car. Sure Jeremy had
experience on asphalt with the ASA cars in 2003. However, now he was
dealing with a completely different suspension with these heavy, big
spring cars. Frank really made that learning curve short.
The best part of the day for Jeremy was finding
that the car really turned well under acceleration. This was what he
had wanted so badly with the ASA car in 2003, but could never find.
Having never driven the car, Jeremy made substantial improvements
throughout the day. Overall, he ended up just about one half second off
veteran racer Gary St. Amant. This made Jeremy and the team very happy
with his progress and excited to start in the
USAR Hooters Pro Cup series 2004 racing season.
Pictures from January through March 2004.
Click on each picture to view it, then click the back button in your
browser to return to this page.
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Jeremy's USAR
car
when it first
arrived home |
Jeremy's USAR
car
when it first
arrived home |
Jeremy's USAR
car
when it first
arrived home |
Jeremy's USAR
car
when it first
arrived home |
Jeremy's USAR
car
when it first
arrived home |
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Jeremy's USAR
car
when it first
arrived home |
Tech line at the
first race of 2004
in Lakeland, FL |
Tech line at the
first race of 2004
in Lakeland, FL |
Mike Laughlin, Jr
#7 |
Brandon Collins
#43 |
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Mike Laughlin, Jr
#7 exiting the pits |
Mike Laughlin, Jr
#7 on the track |
Brandon Collins
#43 on the track |
The infield at
Lakeland, FL |
Jeremy on track
at the
BFG tire test |
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Jeremy on track
at the
BFG tire test |
Jeremy on track
at the
BFG tire test |
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Jeremy on track
at the
BFG tire test |
Jeremy on track
at the
BFG tire test |
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