Marc Miller USA Masters Champion

press release 

MRP Motorsport driver Marc Miller scored a solid victory this past weekend at the Rotax Max Challenge USA Grand Nationals at the USA International Raceway in Shawano, Wisconsin. With the win, Miller was awarded an all expense paid trip to the Rotax Max Challenge World Finals that will take place at the La Conca International Circuit in Muro, Leccese, Italy in late November as a representative of “America’s Team”.

After forgoing the unofficial practice the week before the event, Miller and his tuner, Chad Hartzell, worked hard to get up to speed during the first official day of competition. With a challenging race track and competition that was second to none, Miller was able to turn the fifth quickest time in Wednesday afternoon’s final practice session and would now begin preparation for Thursday’s qualifying.

Thursday provided slightly better results for Miller as he lapped the circuit with the third quickest qualifying lap. Though Miller was .097 off the pole position, he would still start all three of his heat races from the front row.

“We were really pushing to set fast time,” stated Miller after the qualifying session. “I had a good lap going but caught a competitor on my fast lap quicker than expected and that slowed me down. Tim Lobaugh had my Monza chassis working great though so going this quick helps our confidence heading into the heat races.”

Thursday afternoon and Friday would provide heat race action for the talented senior driver and all went as planned for the first two runs. Miller was able to get out front early and score the first two heat race victories before disaster struck in heat race three. After getting the jump at the start and attaining the lead, Miller would lead the opening few laps in the hopes to garner the prefinal pole position before an axle shift would end his run. With the 14th place result, Miller would be forced to start the prefinal from sixth.

Saturday morning would see the skies open and rain begin to fall. As the MRP-Birel AMERICA team prepared for wet weather competition, Miller was excited about his chances. At the drop of the green flag, Miller quickly advanced forward to take the lead, walking away with the victory in the 15-lap prefinal being the only driver under the 1:11.00 barrier with a time of 1:10.687.

With the final looming, the rain continued to fall as Miller continued to build more confidence. The veteran driver knew that a trip to the World Finals was just around the corner. As the green flag flew, Miller did what he was able to do all week and that was get the lead and draw away from the field. As a fierce battle ensued behind him, Miller turned consistent race laps and went on to score the win by over a 7-second margin.

After the event was over and drivers headed to the awards ceremony, Miller was informed that he had received a free pass to race the World Finals in the DD2 class. During his race winning interview, Miller went on to thank MRP Motorsport, Birel, the Lobaugh family and www.RaceNowforAutism.org.

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