Andy Miller Repeats In BRP CanAm Super Stocks

Thorold, ONT…It is sometimes said it is better to be lucky than good. When you are both lucky and good, you win races. Such was the case on Thursday night at Merrittville Speedway when Andy Miller moved from third to first when a mad scramble in front of him on lap 27 opened the door for Miller’s second win in three 2004 BRP CanAm Super Stock Series events.

There is no doubt that Andy Miller is good at his stock race racing trade. He has well prepared equipment and has honed his skills at being cautiously aggressive to a point that he is a contender to win whenever he unloads his R&M Home & Auto Amsoil Grand Prix Super Stock. However, he was not going to win on Thursday night until he got lucky.

“This is the second time that I have been given a win. I don’t really like to do it this way, but I’ll take it,” said Miller in his Merrittville Speedway victory lane interview. “I suspect that a lap car messed up my dad and Jason [Dupont]. I wasn’t close enough to see exactly what happened, but it was very slick down there [bottom of turn four]. I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I love this track. This will help make our four hour ride back to Wellsville easier.” Miller was referencing the Little Valley Speedway victory that came after the apparent race winner’s car did not pass post race technical inspection in event #1 of the 2004 BRP CanAm Super Stock Series.

Scott Beherns and Todd Rice shared the front row for the start of the highest paying BRP CanAm Super Stock Series event ever. Rice powered his Bauchard Dodge sponsored GRT Taurus to the top spot as the first lap was completed. Rice’s Ford powered racer was very quick, but did not adjust to the incredibly fast Merrittville clay. As Rice manhandled his mount on the ragged racer’s edge, Darren Kish moved from his third starting position to make a nice power move under the Keystone state driver and the Canadians went wild. Their hometown favorite [Kish is from nearby Pt. Colborne, Ontario] was back out front at his old stomping grounds. Based on Kish’s performance in the Super Stock Dash For Cash on Victoria Day, most thought that he would record another Merrittville Speedway victory.

Bruce Miller did not compete in the Dash so he knew nothing of Kish’s prior event dominance. He did not know and he did not care. He was too busy hustling his wife’s GRT Grand Prix to the front. This Miller had never seen Merrittville Speedway until his arrival about 6PM on race night. When he saw the track, he was concerned that his boys hadn’t given him the right advice for gears. Since the BRP CanAm Super Stocks are not allowed quick change gears, what he had in his car is what he was going to race with regardless.

The gears worked fine and Miller moved past Kish on lap seven and set about hitting all his marks as fast as he could in hopes of his first ever international win. His only serious challenge came from Lewis Run, Pennsylvania racer Jason Dupont. Dupont’s Zippo Manufacturing sponsored Shaw Monte Carlo was setup perfectly for the extremely fast D shaped Merrittville track and was probably the fastest car in the field. Dupont came from 14th to challenge and may have been ready for his first ever BRP CanAm win until the lap 27 tangle with the lapped car of Jr. Peters sent the heart broken quiet racer to the rear. Dupont ended up 11th, the last car on the lead lap.

Dave Miller [Andy’s dad] came out of the dust of the scramble behind Andy and rode home second in his first 2004 BRP CanAm start.

Kyle Bradigan continued his great 2004 season with a strong third place finish in his Dad’s Shaw Grand Prix. Bradigan is headed home to Florida and does not plan to return for any more racing this summer.

Jeremy Wonderling recorded his best ever BRP CanAm finish bringing his Baldwin Forest Products GRT Grand Prix home fourth. The wonder here is that this is the same car that was upside down at Freedom just five days prior.

Tim Rockwell recorded his third top five finish in three starts with an exciting run which netted the Salamanca driver fifth at the checkers.

Four heats and two B-Mains trimmed the 32 car field to 26 for the A-Main. Bob Babbitt and Justin Chaddock were the provisional starters.

The BRP CanAm teams really appreciated the great treatment provided by the Merrittville Speedway staff and management. They look forward to a return trip across the Peace Bridge in 2005.

The next event for the BRP CanAm Super Stock Series is Saturday July 24th at McKean County Raceway.

The BRP CanAm Super Stock Series is designed to promote the extremely competitive Super Stock race teams that race weekly at Bradford [PA] Speedway, Freedom [NY] Raceway, Genesee [NY] Speedway, and McKean County [PA] Raceway. The 2004 BRP CanAm Super Stock Series includes 13 programs with events scheduled at the weekly tracks plus Gasport [Ont] Speedway, Little Valley [NY] Speedway, Merrittville [Ont] Speedway, Ransomville [NY] Speedway, and Woodhull [NY] Raceway. Visit www.brpcanamsuperstockseries.com or contact Gary Montgomery at 315-536-3728 for more information.

Results:

Heats [10 laps / top five qualify / top three redraw]

#1 – RON BAKER, Tim Rockwell, Scott Beherns, Bob Dixon, Jason Tingue, Neil Patterson, Paul Grigsby, Dave Stephens

#2 – BO CLARK, Dave Miller, Darren Kish, Jason Dupont, Kyle Bradigan, Wayne Adamczak, Alan Wais, Mike Wonderling, Jr.

#3 – ANDY MILLER, Todd Rice, AJ Young, Jim Mazur, Tim Dunham, Jay Deming, Wayne Mohawk, Justin Chaddock

#4 – TJ SHAW, Bruce Miller, Jeremy Wonderling, Jim Johnson, Jr. Peters, Tom Schnars, Bill Holmes, Bob Babbitt

B- Main [10 laps / top four qualify] NEIL PATTERSON, Wayne Adamczak, Bill Holmes, Alan Wais, Jay Deming, Justin Chaddock, Tom Schnars, Dave Stephens, Bob Babbitt, Wayne Mohawk, Mike Wonderling, Jr., DNS Paul Grigsby

A-Main [30 laps] ANDY MILLER, Dave Miller, Kyle Bradigan, Jeremy Wonderling, Tim Rockwell, Ron Baker, Todd Rice, Wayne Adamczak, AJ Young, Bruce Miller, Jason Dupont, Jr. Peters, Jim Johnson, Bo Clark, TJ Shaw, Alan Wais, Justin Chaddock, Jason Tingue, Darren Kish, Jim Mazur, Scott Beherns, Bob Dixon, Neil Patterson, Tim Dunham, Bob Babbitt, Bill Holmes