[BOSS Sprints]

Mike Miller Takes BOSS Victory At PPMS

Imperial, PA (July 1) Mike Miller earned the victory as the Rick’s Trucks and Equipment Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series visited Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway on Saturday night. It was the landmark event number 100 at the track for the open sprint division since the first event in 1979.

A field of 24 entries were divided into three qualifying heats, that were won by Mike Miller, Carmen Perigo, and Dustin Smith. The top three finishers from each heat redrew for the top nine positions in the feature, with Joe Butera and Justin Owen receiving front row starting positions.

Owen took the lead at the green flag, leading over Butera, Matt Cooley, Paul Dues, and Miller. Working lap 1, Vince Daughery took a hard flip in turn two, as his car tumbled over the outside wall and out of the track.

When racing resumed, Owen took off in the lead and distanced himself from the field. Butera held second for a lap before Cooley passed him on lap 3. Seventh starting Carmen Perigo passed Butera for third on lap 5, and passed Cooley for second on lap 7. The large lead of Owen was wiped out by a Riley VanHise spin on lap 9.

Back to green, Miller passed Perigo for second and closed on Owen. He looked high on lap 11 and low on lap 12, but lost ground with his second attempt to pass. Smith got faster as the race progressed, as he passed Perigo for third on lap 15. Sixth running Cooley spun in turn four to bring out what would be the final caution period of the event.

On the single file restart, Miller moved to the high side entering turn one. Getting a good run off of the high side, Miller blasted around the outside of Owen to take the lead on lap 18. Owen and Smith swapped second on lap 20, but Smith made the pass the next time by to take second. Smith then closed in on Miller in the closing laps using the outside groove. But eighth starting Miller used the low groove to perfection over the closing laps to take the win over Smith. Early leader Owen rounded out the podium in third. Perigo was fourth, as Paul Dues ran a solid race for fifth. Butera, 14th starting Michael Fischesser, Chad Wilson, Gale Ruth, Jr., and Cody Gardner rounded out the top ten.

Results for Saturday, July 1, 2017

Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series
Feature results with finish position, start position, car number, and driver.
1, 8, 82, Mike Miller
2, 6, 77, Dustin Smith
3, 2, 4J, Justin Owen
4, 7, 21, Carmen Perigo
5, 4, 87, Paul Dues
6, 1, 3, Joe Butera
7, 14, 44, Michael Fischesser
8, 10, 14, Chad Wilson
9, 11, 5X, Gale Ruth, Jr.
10, 5, 9G, Cody Gardner
11, 17, 53, Steve Little
12, 9, 91X, Aaron Middaugh
13, 16, 86, Rick Holley
14, 15, 5, Bob McMillin
15, 20, 8, Joe Sylvester
16, 18, 96, Riley VanHise
17, 19, 5K, Jeremy Kornbau
18, 23, 31L, Buddy Lowther
19, 3, 19, Matt Cooley
20, 13, 08, Andy Feil
21, 21, 331, Nevan O'Donnell
22, 12, 27, Vince Daugherty
23, 22, 97, Scott Hardman
Did not start, 51, Curtis Muhlenkamp

Heat 1
1, 1, 82, Mike Miller
2, 2, 4J, Justin Owen
3, 6, 9G, Cody Gardner
4, 3, 14, Chad Wilson
5, 4, 08, Andy Feil
6, 5, 86, Rick Holley
7, 8, 5K, Jeremy Kornbau
8, 7, 97, Scott Hardman

Heat 2
1, 2, 21, Carmen Perigo
2, 1, 91X, Aaron Middaugh
3, 4, 19, Matt Cooley
4, 6, 5X, Gale Ruth, Jr.
5, 5, 44, Michael Fischesser
6, 7, 53, Steve Little
7, 3, 8, Joe Sylvester
Did not start, 51, Curtis Muhlenkamp

Heat 3
1, 4, 77, Dustin Smith
2, 1, 3, Joe Butera
3, 2, 87, Paul Dues
4, 6, 27, Vince Daugherty
5, 5, 5, Bob McMillin
6, 7, 96, Riley VanHise
7, 8, 331, Nevan O'Donnell
8, 3, 31L, Buddy Lowther

[GRAYBEARD]

Congrats Mike Miller on your win. Great guy !!!

[sprinter14]

A side note the this story - Mike Miller was involved in a nasty flip the night before at Lernerville. With a lot of work and a little help from other BOSS teams, Miller was able to make hasty repairs and come back to a well earned victory with a cobbled together left front shock tower.

Also, Matt Cooley completely destroyed his car in that same Friday crash at Lernerville. The local parts distributor opened his shop at 1 am so Cooley could buy a new frame and body. Work began at the Comfort Inn hotel parking lot around 3 am and by 3 pm, 12 hours later, a new race car with an interesting mixture of body panels and tail tank was pushed off for Saturday racing.

The amount of work and dedication I saw this weekend has proven to, even myself, that the BOSS series had the BEST people. So many teams pitched in to help!

We even had a rig break down and 2 other teams alternated dropping their trailers and making return trips to get the broke down team to both events and back to their hotel.

I've never been so proud of the teams on our circuit. Thanks for making it all worthwhile guys!!

[Will Shunk]

Aaron and your family of teams has something very special going on in non wing sprint car racing. I hope many fans support BOSS @ WRP next Saturday.

[smith19]

good story Aaron...and the Merrill downey race went off smoothly. I know you were interested!!!