(June 5, 2010) — Miller Barrett Racing had an excellent start to the six-hour GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race at Watkins Glen International, but a parts failure forced an early retirement from the race. The crew worked until 1 am Saturday morning, preparing the No. 48 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car for the race on the 3.4-mile road course in Watkins Glen, N.Y. Their effort was rewarded by a charge to the front of the GT class, then foiled by a broken water-hose fitting.
Bryce Miller of Summit, N.J., started the race from seventh on the GT grid, moved to third on the first lap of the race, then took second place after 29 minutes. He was narrowing the gap to the class leader when he was slowed by a radiator leak and had to pit early. The crew replaced the middle front radiator during a 30-minute pit stop and Luke Hines of Essex, England, took the wheel for the second stint. He completed only one lap, as warning lights flashed to indicate an overheated engine. He limped back to pit lane and the team retired from the race. The leak was later traced to a broken water-hose fitting on the radiator.
Luke Hines: “I thought Bryce did a top job. All weekend we’ve progressed the car; the engineers and team have done brilliant to get where we were in the race. Every day, every test, we were getting better and better. Bryce and I were very close on [lap] times, so it made a really good pairing for this race. On the data, we couldn’t see the difference – it looked like two of the same drivers. It’s a shame that we’ve got a bit of dark cloud above us, but the luck will change and good things will happen. The team did a great job this weekend, they worked really hard and we didn’t really deserve this. I think we had a big chance of winning this race, but hey – racing.”
Bryce Miller: “The car was so good. The crew worked through the night to prepare the car and make some changes that really elevated our performance and I was able to charge very hard from the beginning up to third. Later on, we were running in second place and positioned really good with Luke being our co-driver. It’s an unfortunate situation; I feel bad for the crew. The car was a podium car and it came down to a small plastic part that broke. It’s promising, though, because we are running with podium cars all the time now. It’s exciting to me because I’m having fun driving again and I’m able to really race the car.”
partners
Bryce Miller and Luke Hines compete 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.
– www.millerbarrett.com, www.brycemiller.net, www.lukehinesracing.com –
