January
2, 2006 - As 2006 begins, it's a good time to stop and take a look
back at Jeremy Miller's 2005 racing season. Jeremy persevered through
another USAR Hooters Pro Cup Northern Division season. In only
his second season with the series (and only his 3rd year of driving
asphalt race cars) Jeremy showed significant improvement. Once
again the team would be forced to operate on a shoestring budget.
Any racer will tell you that running on race winnings only won't cut
it. Yet Jeremy managed
to qualify himself for the 2005 Championship Series.
|
Preparing to run the car for the first time in 2005 |
The year 2005 started out with
some major changes. First, the race car was taken to Mike
Laughlin's shop in South Carolina to have the front clip replaced
with Laughlin's newest design. After that Jeremy got his
first experience of hanging a new body on the car.
Everything went well and the car was ready to run. Jeremy then moved his home and shop
before the start of the 2005 season.
In the beginning of April, Jeremy
along with family and friends headed to Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar
Rapids, IA for a shake down test. |
Everything went well that day
and we all noticed that Jeremy was up to speed and looking better in
the car already.The team
decided to wait and start their season at the second race of the
Northern Division schedule at Lonesome Pine Raceway in Coeburn, VA.
Unfortunately, that race was the start of what would become a string
of weekends filled with rain. Jeremy was only able to get about
40 laps of practice in that day. He was unable to qualify for
the race as the mist continued to fall during his qualifying run.
A very disappointed driver headed home. Jeremy felt his
inexperience had really cost him in that situation.
| Early in May
Jeremy was able to take his Chevrolet Monte Carlo to his old
stomping grounds in Eldon, IA. The car was on display as
Jeremy signed autographs at the track where his racing career
started at 14 years old.
After that, Jeremy headed to Indianapolis Raceway Park where he
would drive his way into his first race of the 2005 season.
It was evident how strong the competition would be
for 2005. After seeing 10 cars get sent home from Lonesome
Pine Raceway, there would be 10 sent home again from IRP.
This |
Jeremy comes down pit road after
finishing in his first race of 2005
|
really put the
pressure on Jeremy and the crew to step up and get in this race.
Jeremy's practice times were on the bubble all day long. That
night Jeremy gave the crew a scare as his first qualifying lap wasn't
good enough to make the race. However, he would step up on his
second qualifying lap by almost 0.4 seconds and get the 27th starting
spot in the field for the next day's race. Jeremy ran well in
that first race and brought the car home safely in the 20th position.
With that first race under their belts
the team gained confidence. They were no longer worried about
not qualifying for a race and Jeremy did not let them down.
Over the next two and a half months Jeremy traveled to Jennerstown,
Mansfield, Xenia and Salem. Apparently the rains also decided
to follow along for a couple of races until it decided to finally stay
home. Once again, Jeremy showed improvements at each race
weekend.
|
A full crew of family and friends
came to Jennerstown, PA
|
Along the way
Jeremy had some ups and downs. A full crew of family and
friends showed up to Jennerstown, PA to sit through lots of rain
But there he got the car feeling better than it ever had been and
went on to a 19th place finish.
At Mansfield, OH a pushrod got
lost in the motor and quite a bit of practice time was lost.
Luckily no damage was done. As usual Jeremy never gave up
and
fixed the problem. He took a provisional to get in the race.
After a flat right rear tire and figuring out that a leaking
radiator hose was getting the right front tire wet, Jeremy
collected an 18th place finish. The team was happy enough
after that fun filled day!
At Xenia, OH Jeremy really showed
his potential as he practiced 11th out of 39 cars. He parked
the car with 30 minutes left in practice. After starting and
running in the |
top 15 most of the night, a late race
penalty would put Jeremy back to the 21st finishing position.
The weekend in Salem, IN would prove to
be too much to overcome. After only one practice run, the motor
started having problems. Jeremy later found that three teeth had
broken off a timing gear to cause the problem. Fortunately,
the race at Salem did not have a full field of cars and Jeremy was
able to make one slow (and I mean slow) qualifying lap to nurse the
engine and officially qualify for the race. He completed one lap
and pulled the car in to collect what points and money he could get.
| Jeremy took one
race off after Salem and started to prepare for the final two
races of the schedule. The motor problem was fixed and the
chassis was updated with information from Mike Laughlin.
Jeremy would next return to
Schererville, IN where he had raced in 2004. The weekend
went very well and Jeremy collected an 11th place finish.
Next, he would head to Madison,
WI where he had practiced an ASA race car in 2003. While he
hadn't made that race with ASA, he did like the track. Once
again the day would go well. Jeremy finished 13th even after
a penalty put him down early in the race. Most importantly,
it was at Madison where Jeremy secured his invitation to the 2005
Championship Series. This was quite an accomplishment for
Jeremy and his team. |
Seriously, how do you sleep in
that position in the middle of a race track? |
Overall 2005 was a good season for
Jeremy. In his interview with USAR Xtreme, Jeremy graded his
season with a "C" saying it was just average. However, Jeremy
really did accomplish quite a bit with very little.
Jeremy Miller Racing received help
from many people throughout the 2005 season. The Miller family
would like to take a moment to thank them for their help. First
of all, GETT Industries, Ltd. sponsored a couple races early in the
season. Schaus-Vorhies Contracting also helped out Jeremy's
racing career as they have for many years. Finally we have to
thank everyone who helped on the pit crew this year. We had many
family and new friends help at Jennerstown, PA and want to really
thank them for that. Throughout the year we had some regulars
including Kelly, David, Jeremy C., Aaron and Keith. Thank you
guys for your time and effort.
Jeremy Miller Racing now looks ahead
to 2006. Current plans are to run as many races as possible in
the Northern Division. With a race in our home state of Iowa,
the team plans to run in the Championship races this year as well.
Things are looking good with associate sponsorship from Ceco Building
Systems and Schaus-Vorhies Contracting already in place. We hope
to see you at the track in 2006!
Four generations of Millers were at
Madison, WI and Jeremy's son was having a little too much fun! |
