IRWINDALE, California — Miles “PistonHead” Copenhaver, Ron Esau and PCM crew member Kevin Smith traveled to Louisville, Kentucky last week. The main reason was to learn about the new car set-ups. Miles and the guys spent a couple of days checking out the historic places in Kentucky like Churchill Downs and the old parts of Downtown Louisville. They also checked out the Kentucky Bourbon Trail with a tour of the Woodford Reserve Bourbon Distillery which provided some great country sites. On Friday AM before going to the Kentucky Speedway, They snuck in a tour of the Louisville Slugger Factory. It’s rumored that Miles is having an autographed version of the bat coming out soon.
After the tour it was off to the Track to learn from Brian Ickler. Brian is running the NASCAR Camping World Truck series and also the ARCA RE/MAX series this weekend in Kentucky. Not to mention that Justin Lofton is there at the Kentucky Speedway as well to compete in the ARCA RE/MAX series. Justin treated everyone to dinner on Friday night and was then back to the track again for Saturday’s double feature. Brian Ickler had fourth quick to start the truck race. During the race he was running great till a “so-called pass” of the truck next to him at a restart. Brian had to start in the back and was working his way back towards the front but unfortunately got into an accident in the Truck race. But he still finished 21st overall. In the ARCA RE/MAX race, Brian set a new track record on his first lap then spun on lap two. To stay off the wall Brian forced it in to third gear and the transmission broke. With a transmission change he had to start dead last. Justin qualified fifth and did a great job to finish third. After starting in the back, Brian worked his way up to a fifth place finish. Both these drivers cut their teeth on paved track racing with Mile’s Dad, Paul Copenhaver.
Recently Paul worked out a deal with 2004 Irwindale Late model Champion Doug McComb to drive the Car #88, which is the PCM Motorsports second car. Miles, in his last race on July 4th posted the most cars starting last after working on the car at an impound race. Miles worked his way through the field in the 75 lap event, passing ten cars, and then got spun out. With a pit stop being made to fix the car with about 25 laps to go, he started last to finish 6th. Miles is looking forward to get behind the wheel of the number #8 PCM Motorsports Ford this weekend July 25th a the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale with new team driver Doug McComb.
Miles would like to thank all of his sponsors that make this racing season possible; Ron’s Rear End, PCM Motorsports, Apache Rentals, Eibach Spring, BCRI, Rapid Ron Racing, Inc., Tubbs Vinyl, Bill Loe Racing Engines, 10,000 RPM Clutches, WUI, http://www.racinaround.com/photos.html
