(February 17, 2010) — Miller Barrett Racing will have two young, fast drivers behind the wheel of the No. 48 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car this season. Luke Hines of Essex, England, will join Bryce Miller of Summit, N.J., to contest the 11 upcoming races in the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. Their GT-class Porsche will carry the colors of Marquis Jet, Grand Prix Racewear, IPC Systems and TOTAL Lubricants.
Hines and Miller were teammates in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 30 and 31. That experience showed their compatibility as co-drivers, leading to the full-season agreement. Miller has raced at all the circuits on the schedule; Hines will drive each for the first time. They believe the combination of experience and fresh outlook will be effective.
“I am very pleased to have Luke Hines as my co-driver for the season. We worked well together at Daytona. He is a real professional in his approach and brings championship-winning experience to our effort,” Miller said. “I think the biggest challenge for Luke will be learning all the tracks on our circuit here in the U.S., but he knows what needs to be done and we will support him to accomplish this the best we can.”
Hines noted, “I’ve been used to having to pick up a track quickly and it will help having data from Bryce. More than anything, when you don’t know a track, you rely on the data. And I’ve got the best driver to look at the data and the track with. I’m glad that I’ll be racing with Miller Barrett Racing and I’m chuffed about racing with Bryce – I think that we can cause some trouble! With the team pairing we’ve got and the team behind us, we’ve got an excellent chance of winning.”
That team includes owners Paul Miller and Eric Barrett, crew chief Paul Caves and data engineer Mitchell Simmons. Their effort will be bolstered by the addition of race engineer Lee Penn, who joined the team this month. Hines and Penn have already won championships together in Europe.
“Whoever Lee Penn has worked with has always got big results,” Hines said. “He’s just as competitive as the drivers and that’s big value for a team, especially a team that’s run with racing fanatics who have racing in their blood. I think that’s what makes this team different to a lot of the teams, and that will be another advantage.”
Hines’ career started with championships in karting and Formula Ford, then continued with a British Touring Car Championship production class title in 2003, team championship in 2004 and runner-up honors in 2006. In 2008, he finished second in the British GT Championship and notched a fifth-place prototype finish in the Petit Le Mans. He followed with a podium finish in his first Formula Le Mans race, in 2009. He has also competed in the FIA-GT Championship and the 24 Hours of Dubai.
Miller’s resume includes a Rolex Series GT team championship, a string of victories and 22 class podium finishes, including the Rolex 24 At Daytona. He finished second in class, fifth overall in the Total 24 Hours of Spa last year. In his rookie Rolex Series season, 2007, he co-drove the race-winning championship GT car and just missed sharing the driver title because he was in a different car for the Rolex 24. He has wins in the Rolex Series, American Le Mans Series and IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge, all in Porsche cars.
partners
Miller Barrett Racing competes with the support of four international sponsors. Marquis Jet is the recognized leader in private jet cards because it’s the only program that offers exclusive access to NetJets – the gold standard in private aviation – 25 hours at a time. Grand Prix Racewear is a respected supplier of motorsport protective clothing and driver accessories, based at Silverstone Circuit in England. The company offers worldwide delivery of 15,000 product lines. IPC Information Systems is a leading provider of mission-critical communications solutions to financial services firms. TOTAL Lubricants is the world’s fourth-largest publicly traded integrated international oil and gas company.
