Andy Miller Leads $18,000 BRP CanAm Point Chase

St. Catharines, ONT… Andy Miller leads 53 other drivers in the chase for 2004 BRP CanAm Super Stock Series point championship. After three of the eleven point events Miller holds a 43 point advantage over Todd Rice. At season’s end the top twelve Series point earners will share in the $18,000 point fund.

“It is too early in the season to worry about points. I am just racing to win or finish up front in as many races as I can at this point. I am really more concerned about the money. Yes, I think about points, but I do not concentrate on them this early. I won the points championship at McKean [County Raceway] last year and I went into the final race at Little Valley [Speedway] tied with Bill Holmes, but he beat me by a couple of spots and with that he got the championship. I would have really liked to have won the championship at both tracks. I was taken out of the McKean points chase for this year with a disqualification. I think I am leading in points at Little Valley, but we have only raced there twice. It is just too early to think about points!’’ This was from Andy as he took time away from putting a new body on his race car in preparation for the 2nd Annual Brock Young Memorial BRP CanAm Super Stock Series event at McKean County Raceway on Saturday July 24.

Miller’s point advantage results from an incredible three race record of two wins and a runner-up finish. He will be the first to tell you that his wins at Little Valley Speedway and Merrittville Speedway were simply his good luck and someone else’s bad fortune. Regardless, the 33 year old second generation racer finds himself in a position that the 53 other drivers who have entered 2004 BRP CanAm events to date would like to be in.

Todd Rice stands tall in second just 43 point behind Miller. Rice is only looking forward because if he looked back he would see Tim Rockwell just nine points behind. Rice stated, “So far Phil [Bauschard[ has not offered to buy us one of Ray Evernham’s Nextel Cup engines, but if we thought that would allow us to reel in Andy, I would talk to him.” [Rice’s Ford powered GRT Taurus wears primary sponsorship from Bauschard Dodge.] “What we have done not to just beat Andy, but to make the car handle better, is that after Merrittville we disassembled everything but the motor. The motor is fine. We have more horsepower than I can use, but we have got to get a better handle on the chassis. We did not find any major problems, but it did seem to work better Saturday night [second to Dustin Croft at McKean County Raceway]. We will just keep working and do the best we can. How many points back are we?”

Tim Rockwell has been the surprise of the 2004 Series. Rockwell opened the season at the Merrittville Speedway Dash where he finished third. The Salamanca racer backed up that Merrittville run with a second at his home track [Little Valley Speedway]. He was 8th at Freedom and 5th in the Merrittville points event. Those three top ten finishes have resulted in 243 points, good enough for third place standing at this time.

Bill Holmes, Jr. is one of the area’s top Super Stock drivers. He owns multiple track championships at both Little Valley Speedway and McKean County Raceway. He has not been lucky in BRP CanAm Series competition, however. A crash in the Series race at McKean last year resulted in both a DNF and DNS which took the Chaffee, NY speedster out of the 2003 Series point championship hunt. In 2004, his Series record started out fine. A fourth place finish in the Little Valley opener appeared to have set the stage for a Series championship run. From there Holmes has had bad luck. At Freedom he was second and contending for the win when a ball joint broke with three laps to go and he had to nurse his GRT Monte Carlo home fourth. At Merrittville Holmes was the first car out of the main when the water pump came off the Denny Newell built Chevy that powers his GRT Monte Carlo. Nobody is counting Holmes out of the 2004 BRP CanAm championship yet

Second generation racer and Scio Speed Society member Jeremy Wonderling currently rounds out the top five in Series points. The strength of Wonderling’s fifth place finish in the Little Valley Speedway opener and fourth place finish at Merrittville Speedway have partially offset the Freedom DNF where Wonderling became the first driver to get upside down in BRP CanAm competition.

Bruce Miller [winner at Freedom], Ron Baker, Wayne Adamczak, Kyle Bradigan, AJ Young, Jim Mazur, and Jim Johnson round out the top 12 point earners after three of the eleven races that comprise the 2004 BRP CanAm Super Stock Series.

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

Point standings as of July 15, 2004: 1. Andy Miller - 295, 2. Todd Rice – 252, 3. Tim Rockwell – 243, 4. Bill Holmes, Jr. – 210, 5. Jeremy Wonderling – 209, 6. Bruce Miller – 207, 7. Ron Baker – 188, 8. Wayne Adamczak – 186, 9. Kyle Bradigan – 177, 10. A.J. Young – 172, 11. Jim Mazur – 170, 12. Jim Johnson – 163, 13. T.J. Shaw – 159, 14. Bob Dixon – 156, 15. Jr. Peters – 154, 16. Tim Dunham – 152, 17. Jason Dupont – 136, 18. Justin Chaddock – 133, 19. Bo Clark – 129, 20. Bob Babbitt – 127, 21. Darren Kish – 121, 22. Scott Beherns – 118, 23. Jason Tingue – 116, 24. Jay Deming – 113, 25. Paul Grigsby – 112, 26. Chief Neil Patterson – 111, 27 tie. Don Wagner & Tim Schram – 106, 29 tie. Mike Wonderling, Jr. & Tom Schnars– 105, 31. Jack Harrington – 98, 32 tie. Dave Miller & Dustin Croft – 95, 33. Alan Wais - 90, 34. Todd Hansen – 79, 35. Terry Pangrazio – 75, 36. Todd Shaw – 52, 37 tie. Matt Cobb & Doug Pringle – 48, 39. Chad Arnold – 43, 40th all with one DNQ and 35 points are Danny Bastito, Justin Landcastle, Dean Ingalls, Greg Hallet, Butch Talbot, Dave Stephens, Wayne Mohawk, Jason Schoomaker, Pete Waldron, George Ritter, Rick Wulff, Don Krug, Matt Emerling and Joe Layfield