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SALT LAKE CITY -- Miller Racing, based in Salt Lake City, is heading to the EMCO Gears Classic presented by KeyBank at historic Mid-Ohio Sportscar Course in Lexington, Ohio this weekend for the season-ending race in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
Miller Racing was formed this year to compete in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series and various other racing series.
Team principal Roger Miller, chief technology officer for the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies, will co-drive the team's No. 158 Ford Mustang Boss 302R with James Burke. The team will compete in the Grand Sports class with sponsorship from Miller Motorsports Park, the Ford Racing High Performance Driving School and the Ford Racing Boss Track Attack.
The formation of the team is the realization of a dream for Miller, who was always a motorsports enthusiast but got the urge to go racing himself after his late father, Larry H. Miller, built Miller Motorsports Park in 2006. Roger Miller went through training at MMP's Ford Racing High Performance Driving School and began his racing career in the track's Miller Park Racing Association and the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge series. It was at the Ford Racing High Performance Driving School where he met Burke, who was a highly-regarded racing driver in England before moving to Utah to be a driving school instructor.
"It's been a wild ride since we established this team earlier in the year, but it has been a very exciting venture," said Miller. "Although we're still on a bit of a learning curve as a team, things have gone well overall. James has been a great partner and his experience and race savvy have been invaluable. We appreciate the support of our families, friends and teammates, and we are most indebted to Dempsey Racing, who have helped us all along the way and handled our team logistics. We're proud to represent Miller Motorsports Park, the Ford Racing High Performance Driving School and the Ford Racing Boss Track Attack program. With a lot of hard work and a little luck, we hope to make them proud of us this weekend at Mid-Ohio."
"This is going to be an exciting weekend," said Burke. "It's one of America's great racetracks, and our Boss 302R Mustang should be very strong. The team has gone through a few rough patches coming out of the gate, but we're getting better every time we race. This is a very competitive series and we've jumped in at the deep end, but we're feeling confident and looking forward to our best result yet."
This weekend's race will be the team's third outing in the CTSCC, having already raced at Road America in June, placing 12th in class, and at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in July, placing 23rd in class after encountering mechanical problems mid-race.
The race will take place on Saturday, September 17, and will be broadcast on a tape-delayed basis on SPEED Channel at 11 a.m. MDT on Sunday, September 25.
For more information on Miller Racing, visit the team's website at www.MillerRacing.com.
(Photo: Roger Miller (left) and James Burke will co-drive the No. 158 Miller Racing Ford Mustang Boss 302R in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday, September 17, 2011. Courtesy Miller Racing/Margie Gerard)
