Port Vue man living a dream in home-built race car
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Last summer, Pete Miller III of Port Vue bought a truck in South Dakota and traveled from there to the Kansas-Missouri border to buy a trailer.
He then drove the 80-foot-long, 77,000-pound tractor-trailer equipped with full living quarters to Ohio to spend nine straight days sprint car racing at various tracks.
No longer will he have to sleep on converted truck seats or shower at carwashes while pursing his dream.
"It is always something I wanted to do. Now I can't get enough of it," he said of racing.
In January, Mr. Miller, 20, was named the 2011 Rookie of the Year of the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series.
His parents, Pete Jr. and Karen, accompanied him to the banquet at the University of Northwestern Ohio Events Center in Lima, Ohio, where he publicly thanked them and others for their help and support.
"My parents are awesome," said Mr. Miller, a 2010 graduate of South Allegheny High School.
"I hand my mom my money from each paycheck and every dime I ever make and she budgets it and makes sure we have enough money for the next race.
"My dad plans everything as well as guides me in the correct direction all the time."
Although his mother wishes her son's road to happiness was paved with something other than fast dirt tracks, cross-country tractor-trailer treks or long absences from home, she is proud of him.
"He is amazing. There is nothing he can't do," she said. "I go to the races, but I cry the whole time."
Her son's love affair with moving vehicles began at age 5 with electric cars he could sit in and drive. A battery-operated jeep was next, followed by a small all-terrain vehicle at age 10 that he flew off of, landing in thorny bushes.
"He stood up, shook it off and said he was OK," said his father, who raced stock cars in the baby grand division in the 1970s.
The younger Mr. Miller competed for seven years on weekends in go-karts and limited sprint car divisions.
Today, he travels to races with his crew -- his father, brother Matt "Guido" Parker and friend Ron Gray -- and his race car and an identical backup car, both of which he constructed in the family garage using custom-built chassis and engines.
"It's like an erector set -- you buy the stuff and put the car together," he said.
Last year, he competed in 65 races in his No. 3 car -- the number was chosen because he is the third Pete Miller in his family -- at average speeds of 125 to 130 mph.
In a sport in which purses can reach $5,000 a race, his biggest challenge, he said, is money.
He lives with his parents, and with no sponsors, he relies on race winnings and his salary as a repossessor in his father's business, American Recovery Corp., to finance his travels, including fuel costs of $6 per gallon.
On Tuesday, Mr. Miller, his father and Mr. Gray will depart for Screven, Ga., for a race next Thursday.
That leaves Mrs. Miller to run the family business while dreaming of a safe and secure future for her eldest child.
"Why can't he find a nice beautiful girl to settle down with and be happy?" she asked. "Why this need for speed?"
His response: "I live to do this. The thrill of competition. The adrenaline. To race for a living would be a dream come true."
First Published February 2, 2012 5:28 am
