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Written by Dylan Purcell
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Monday, July 06 2009, 10:19 PM |
Don Miller’s one critical race car owner.
But he’s also a proud father and he’ll bend your ear for hours talking up his son, Kelly.
To Kelly, who won the Prairie Dirt Classic 360 sprint car race in Swift Current on the weekend, this “proud father” stuff is all hearsay.
“All I hear about’s what I did wrong,” says Kelly with a shake of his head. “But he can’t be too mad ’cause he hasn’t fired me yet.”
Apparently, Don’s tough love has worked, because Kelly started out two years ago as a goofy-looking 16-year-old just hoping he didn’t crash his dad’s car.
Dad may not dole out a ton of praise to Kelly’s ears, but he’s the boy’s biggest fan. In fact, Don seems to enjoy being part of the team more than he did driving.
“He likes to say he owns a race car,” said Kelly. “That way he can threaten to fire me if I don’t win. I don’t think he ever would.”
Now, Kelly’s moved up a class of car to the 360 sprints of the American Sprint Car Series, and he’s earned a win even his dad had to admit was impressive.
“He was pretty excited but I don’t know if it’s because I won or because I didn’t crash,” said Kelly with a laugh.
It’s a safe bet Don was happy about the win because he proceeded to fill the trophy with beer and enjoyed a celebratory swig or two. After he got most of the dirt out of it.
“I guess I was supposed to throw the dirt out after the race,” said Kelly. “I missed my cue. It looks like there was a lot of dirt left in it after we were done drinking.”
Welcome to the big leagues.
Kelly started racing two years ago at Bridge County Raceway with the then-new Sportsman Sprint class, a great starter category the local track and some of the area’s veteran riders started. It gave Kelly the perfect launching board to move up to the faster 360 series. The Sportsman sprints have grown quite a bit locally and Kelly moving up a class is exactly what was envisioned when it started.
He’s planning to head to Tucson, Ariz. for the winter nationals before basing the team in Texas for the next racing season. Kelly said he’ll be moving south with the motorhome and his crew will fly down on weekends for races in the ASCS 360 series throughout Oklahoma and Texas.
“Why not,” asks Don. “Why not get a taste of it while he’s too young and stupid to know what he’s getting into?
“It’s a real opportunity and we can pull it off for a year, at least. He’ll be down there with the trailer and the inventory and we’ll fly out to meet him for races.”
That crew will involve a rotating schedule of Don, uncle Larry Miller, and friends and sponsors. Don’s already said he thinks Dallas Harty of Sobeys will enjoy working a crew at a big-time race.
“You telling me that won’t be a kick? It’s not an every week thing, but the scheduling of it should work and it’s a chance for Kelly to show his sponsors they’re getting their money’s worth.”
No worry on that front, Kelly’s already mentioning his sponsors (Dwight’s Place, Sobeys, JK Trucking) at every opportunity for the No. 44 car.
“We’re happy with the sponsors we have now and they’ve got us this far. I can honestly say the car’s been great. Even in Winnipeg, we blew the fuel pump, it was just a freak thing and it was great in Swift Current.”
The Speedy Creek Raceway win saw Kelly lead for all but one lap, although last year’s 360 series champion Sean Moran didn’t let up. Kelly said he could see Moran’s wing the whole way. The victory came by a nose in the 25th lap, a nice return after Moran nipped Kelly at the end of last year’s race.
“There aren’t any easy wins on this tour,” said Kelly. “Everybody’s racing to win and they go hard. Every once in a while you get a filler but for the most part, everybody there’s a good racer.”
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