LAKE STEVENS, Washington — For Kyle Miller, being a champion never gets old, and he earned his third sprint car driving championship in as many years this season. This year’s title, however, came for something different from the first two. It came without the wings, as the Eugene, Ore. resident won the inaugural championship for the IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour.
At this Saturday’s banquet at the Holiday Inn in Wilsonville, Ore. Miller will be recognized as the champion of the new series, which virtually everyone believes had a successful first season, despite having only run eight events. Miller took over the points lead during the summer and solidified it with his only NWWT victory of the season on August 15th at Cottage Grove Speedway. He held on the rest of the way to win the title over Gary Davis by 11 points.
Miller, who still isn’t old enough to legally drink, won his first championship in 2007 when he topped the limited sprint car division at Cottage Grove Speedway. The next season Miller earned the 360 sprint car division title at the same track. Both championships came with the wings on the car, but in 2009 Miller discovered that he liked wingless racing so much that after the first couple of events he decided he would run the rest of the NWWT schedule and go for the tour’s inaugural championship in the non-wing 360 sprint car division.
As everyone now knows, it turned out to be a good decision on his part. Even when some people tried getting Miller to skip the August 15th event to run somewhere else, Miller instead elected to stay and attempt to keep his points lead, which turned out to be an even better decision as he won the main event that night in his family’s No. 10 Springer-powered XXX.
In non-NWWT action, Miller got his first win of the season in the spring with the wings on his car as he won a limited sprint main event at Cottage Grove. On September 26th at Cottage Grove, Miller dueled with Oregon racing legend Dale Smith and beat him to win the track’s “Northwest Wingless Championship” and a $2,500 pay check. All combined, Miller won three main events this year.
Miller finished third to Kyler Barraza in the inaugural NWWT main event at Cottage Grove Speedway on April 25th after coming from the back of the field twice. On May 23rd at the same track, Miller was racing for the lead with Jeff Rivers when the two cars tangled, causing race ending damage to Miller’s car and Rivers went on a hard set of flips. After that disappointing setback, Miller bounced back with consecutive second place finishes on June 6th (to Roger Crockett) and July 18th (to Smith) before his victory on August 15th.
After being out of the picture for most of the race, Miller was suddenly up near the front and threatening to challenge for the lead in September 5th’s Grays Harbor Non-Wing Challenge at Grays Harbor Raceway, the first non-wing sprint car event in the Elma, Wash. facility’s history. Miller wound up finishing third to further extend his points lead.
September 12th saw the series return to Cottage Grove Speedway, and for the fifth time in 2009 it was Miller setting the pace in qualifying, but immediately after setting fast time something broke on Miller’s car, sending him tumbling off the track. Miller missed his heat race. but because they were chasing the championship he and his crew were still trying to repair the car in time for the main event. That main event, however, never happened as a torrential downpour hit the track and made it unsafe for racing. Miller emerged with a 19-point lead over Gary Davis going into the season finale.
The IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour closed its inaugural season on October 3rd with the Fall Classic at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Ore. Miller struggled in qualifying and Davis gained six points, cutting Miller’s advantage to 13 tallies. Both drivers finished fourth in their heat races, creating no change in points going into the main event. Davis needed to finish 14 positions ahead of Miller to win the championship. While Davis, who did not win a main event in 2009, needed to finish 14 positions ahead of Miller to win the championship, he only gained two points as he finished fourth and Miller earned a sixth place finish to clinch the championship.
That sixth place finish at Willamette Speedway was only the second time in seven NWWT main events that Miller did not finish in the Top 3. It very well could have been six Top 3 finishes and possibly a second NWWT win in seven starts had Miller not crashed out while battling for the lead on May 23rd. It was that solid of run for Kyle Miller this year, and it was during that run that Miller emerged as one of the major faces of the new NorthWest Wingless Tour.
More information on the IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour can be found online at http://www.nwwinglesstour.com.
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IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour
Top 10 points
1. Kyle Miller, 548 - 2009 NWWT 360 sprint car champion
2. Gary Davis, 537
3. Mark Nichols, 453
4. Sammy Wright, 442
5. Dylan Olsen, 420
6. Kyler Barraza, 417
7. Theo McCarty, 415
8. Mike Romig, 413
9. Keary Morris, 394
10. Jeff Rivers, 370
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IXL Metal Conditioner NorthWest Wingless Tour
2009 banquet
Where: Holiday Inn - Wilsonville, Oregon
When: Saturday, October 24th
Master of ceremonies: Andrew Kunas
Cocktails: 6 p.m. to 12 Midnight, no host bar
Dinner: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Awards scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m.
Anyone who has questions is encouraged to call Meg Gentes at (503) 570-8803 or e-mail at meg@maxlinecases.com
