(August 7, 2009) — Miller Barrett Racing led the GT class during the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Watkins Glen International on Friday evening, but a hit from a Daytona Prototype car took the rookie team out of its first race. Bryce Miller of Summit, N.J., and Kevin Roush of Upland, Calif., combined for a strong start in the No. 48 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car sponsored by Marquis Jet, IPC Systems and Total Lubricants.
Roush drove the first stint, starting ninth on the 17-car GT grid. He worked up to lead the class after 82 minutes of the two-hour race. He handed off to Miller, who returned to the track ninth in class after a green-flag pit stop. Caught in a DP-class battle, he was knocked off track with a hit that broke the car’s right-rear suspension and took the team out of the race.
Bryce Miller: “I’m really proud of the team. They did a hell of a job to put on such a show today in our debut race. Kevin drove his heart out, driving the car to the front like that. It was fun to watch. We didn’t know what expectations to have coming here – it’s really been a continuation of our testing and development. To start off like this and to have this as a baseline is a good sign. There are a lot of positive things to walk away with, but it’s certainly a big pill to swallow to have gone from that position and not finished. But we’ll get over it and look forward to the next races, and hopefully shake some things up here.”
Kevin Roush: “With this unique NASCAR coupling [a shared race weekend with two NASCAR series], we didn’t get any practice today whatsoever. We found a gearbox problem this morning, so we had to run the spare ‘box, and we also ran a different differential, different gears and different suspension setup. We just rolled the dice and came up with a pretty good car. It’s heart-breaking we didn’t get the finish the team deserved. They did a really great job and the car was a dream to drive. Thanks to Marquis Jet and Paul Miller Porsche for the chance to drive with them. And I couldn’t do it without the support of my sponsors Wheel Enhancement and JSI Shipping.
The team’s next race will be at le Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montréal on Aug. 29.
partners
Bryce Miller races with the support of three 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. 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.
