By Lance Miller
I remember talking to my partner one cold December day as my blood started to boil during our heated conversations about running the 12 Hours at the Point. It was the one jolt I really needed; it honestly helped me throughout the winter months knowing that we were going to be working side-by-side to make this exciting new endeavor work. Naturally we both got more excited about the idea of making it a reality the more we spoke about it. Our ideas were bouncing off one another lightning quick… as a matter of fact, I don’t know if either of us were listening to one another because we were both so excited about it!

During our brainstorm session we decided to incorporate a charitable organization; naturally we went with the Chip Miller Charitable Foundation since it’s near and dear to my heart. My father passed away 5 years ago from Amyloidosis and we started a charitable organization in his honor after his passing. We had two separate packages for people to enjoy the race, gold and platinum.

The Gold package consisted of the following:
•    Two general admission passes to the 12-Hour Summit Point race, qualifying and practice
•    Two general admission bands for the all-you-can-eat catered buffet, all-you-can-drink soda and water and a three-beer voucher for 21 years and older registrants
•    A parking spot near the hospitality area in the paddock
•    A chance to meet with the drivers during the race
•    Two special 12-Hour Summit Point race hats
•    Two 2009 general admission tickets to your choice of events hosted by Carlisle Events
The Platinum package had everything the Gold package had to offer plus:
•    A one-night stay at the newly renovated and very beautiful George Washington historical hotel (June 13, 2009)
•    An evening reception for two that includes hors d’oeuvres and cash bar
•    A Chip Miller Charitable Foundation Tie with the C5R Corvette (to the first 30 registrants)
•    A Chip Miller Charitable Foundation Scarf with the C5R Corvette (to the first 30 registrants)

Ok, let’s talk about how we got the cars. I had my eye on a couple GM Heritage vehicles out at Barrett Jackson in early January so I went out to stay with an old college buddy, Randy Koepel, who lives 5 minutes from the auction. After having his assistant pick me up at the airport, she started to tell me about his newest purchases. She mentioned that Randy recently pulled the trigger and purchased 19 ex-Bondurant Corvettes. Of course when I saw Randy for the first time and greeted him accordingly, one of the first things out of my mouth was, “Tell me about the old Bondurant Corvettes you purchased.” He went on to explain they were C5s, three of which were Z06s. Needless to say, during Barrett Jackson I was outbid on 3 GM Heritage vehicles that I was seeking to purchase (the Snake Skinner, ’89 Challenge Car and a Camaro ZL1). Two out of the three cars I bid on were purchased by Rick Hendricks; he’s got some good taste!

During the auction I had an opportunity to run over to the Bondurant facility with Randy. He told me to pick and choose any of the cars I’d like to take home. I walked through the long line of sun-saturated Bondurant Corvettes thinking about all the joy they brought to the many satisfied customers that drove them on the track. In each car there was a thick 3-inch stack of papers that had every ounce of work that was ever done on the vehicles throughout their tenure at the school. I cherry picked my favorite cars and ended up with the 5 best ones on the lot. I wrote Randy a check and flew out the next day. He would sell me only 1 of the 3 Z06s he purchased; however, after my return home he called to say the other person that wanted the Z06 bailed and provided me with the first right of refusal.

So all together, we ended up purchasing 6 ex-Bondurant Corvettes, two of which were Z06s. By the time the cars arrived on our doorstep in Carlisle, PA, my partner already had the Z06s lined up to visit Phoenix Performance Inc.  Joe Aquilante and his team have a reputation of building the best Corvette race car cages in the industry; we were just fortunate they lived so close to us. Joe and his team rushed our Z06s through and we couldn’t have asked for a more professional job. Joe and his team are experts in this field and I will always recommend that anyone getting into racing should give them a call because I feel they are the best in the business. If you ever see our race cars in person, open the door and look at the professional cages – honestly they are a piece of artwork inside!

Once the cages were installed along with a few other goodies such as trans coolers , etc., we finally had an opportunity to really give the cars their first test on the track. We took them to Summit Point and enjoyed a nice rainy weekend of driving. Fortunately our Toyo tires kept us on the track and performed flawlessly throughout the entire weekend of rain and mud. After driving the cars for the first time, we found a few issues with the cars that needed to be taken care of. We drove the cars down to Mechanicsburg Sports Car Center where our good friends and teammates, Tim and Todd Sprinkle, worked day and night to get the cars where they needed to be. We can’t thank this crew enough for all of their countless hours of hard work on these two Corvettes. If it weren’t for them, we would have never had the cars on the track in time. Racing is all about teamwork and Lawrence Chevrolet was a big part of our team too. A friend of mine, Jerry McKinney, works at Lawrence and has plenty of knowledge on any Corvette that passes by him. We were fortunate to have his expert help throughout our efforts. Lawrence Chevrolet also helped us get a lot of the parts we needed in a short time period; their service to us was speedy and professional in every aspect – special thanks!

There was one more test day we had for the cars prior to the 12-hour race so we headed up to Pocono Raceway for an extended weekend. Both cars performed very well. Bill, Todd and I were happy with how the cars handled, braked and performed overall. We felt confident the cars were ready for the 12-hour race so Todd and Tim worked vigorously on the two cars to ensure everything was fresh for our big race.
Qualifying day was here… we had Todd Sprinkle take the #28 car out for qualifying and we ended up on the pole out of 29 entered race cars. By the way, number 28 was a tribute to my father as well – he carried #28 with pride during track events we used to attend together in the past. Our backup team drove the #03 car to 4th place on the grid. This car was driven by Harry Kintzi, Jeff Adams and Rick Carlino. Between our crew, the Chip Miller Charitable Foundation supporters, our family and drivers, we had approximately 70 Chip Miller Charitable Foundation hats running around the track area throughout the weekend. Needless to say, we were getting the word out not only about our race team but also about Amyloidosis – all of our hard work and strong efforts worked and worked well!

The race started at 9am on Saturday morning and our team discussed how we were going to drive. Our philosophy was simple: Drive the car easy and make sure we’re around after the 12-hour mark. Our main objective was to survive for 12 hours with the best results possible. During the race we had only a few mishaps. Yours truly had a driving error and the car swung around and bounced off one of the tire walls. Fortunately we didn’t incur any damage for this incident. During one of Todd’s stints, he took the car off course a bit and hit a pot hole causing the car to not feel stable. He brought it in and two wheel stud bolts dropped to the ground. Our team worked vigorously to get the two new studs placed back in as quickly as possible but with the extreme heat coming off the brakes and tires, it made for a tough feat – it held us back 26 minutes. After a couple more stints, we brought the car in for a brake change and another wheel stud bolt broke after torquing the wheel. This held us up approximately 15 more minutes but we kept our chins up and held to our plan. 

The other team had no issues and while in the pits working on our car, it was nice to hear the groan of the V8 engine as it rolled by lap after lap. The #03 car didn’t miss a beat the entire race; all the drivers would get out of the car with big smiles even while being drenched with sweat.

During the tenth hour of the race there was a bad lightning storm that greeted us. I was the lucky one driving during this stint and can tell you I was thrilled when they threw a full-course black flag asking all the drivers to come in. We don’t have side windows in our cars and it made it difficult to see out of the windshield due to the mist inside the windshield. They kept us in the pit area and allowed people to change their tires. Our Toyo’s were great in the rain so we left our dry tires on for the remainder of the race. After speaking with our team manager, Tim, on the Speedcom Communication system in our vehicle, he asked me a few questions regarding our fuel, etc. He then let me know that I’d be finishing the race for our team. I was excited but also knew the last hour or so was going to be tough due to the standing water on the track. Needless to say, we finished and finished well taking into consideration all of our mishaps.

The #03 car finished the 12-hour race in 5th place overall and 3rd in ITE class. The #28 car finished in 10th overall and 1st in T1 class (there was only 1 car – us). Both car teams were proud! The crew was outstanding and really made sure we were safe and on the track for the optimum amount of time. The synergy and camaraderie of this race could never be put into words – it was simply awesome! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that helped us succeed – without you we couldn’t have done it! The end result: a memory that will last a lifetime!