ALL HE EVER WANTED TO DO

Johnson City, Tennessee, (April, 2001) - Johnny Miller, 35, drives racecars for a living. That's not all that unusual in a day when NASCAR's Winston Cup Series is the fastest-growing spectator sport in North America. But Miller, who grew up in the shadow of the high banks in Bristol, Tennessee, isn't a Winston Cup driver.

Miller is a road racer, a professional sports car driver, which is a rare breed in Tennessee. But then so is Miller; racing, any racing, is all he ever wanted to do.

"I got bit by the racing bug at about the age of 12 watching Winston Cup and Indy Car races," says Miller, who was the BFGoodrich Tires Trans-Am Series Rookie of the Year in 1996. "Some of the first races I went to were the local drag and dirt tracks. But when I went to the 24 hours of Daytona at age 15 and hung out in the pits, volunteering to shine wheels while watching my new found heroes, Irv Hoerr, Paul Newman, Brian Redman and Danny Ongias, I realized this is where I wanted to be."

Not born to a famous racing family or to a lot of money, Miller had to figure out a way to get the money to race. He worked as an auto mechanic, working on street cars as well as racers. But he also went to school, and on to college earning a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1988. But the racing dream wouldn't die. Miller raced whenever he could, even with two jobs and school. He began autocrossing all over the Southeast, winning many regional and divisional championships, as well as a Dodge Daytona Turbo Z and a scholarship in the National Collegiate Driving Championship in 1984.
When he got out of college, he continued to run autocross events, racing a 1964 Corvette in SCCA Solo I and Corvette Club events, and using the car to get his racing license. After breaking many track records and winning numerous club events, he discovered the 1964 Corvette was a valuable vintage car with a history. By selling the outdated vintage Corvette, Miller would have enough money to purchase a faster racecar and propel himself to a higher level in racing.

After going through a couple of newer Camaro racecars, Miller was still struggling, but gained sponsorship for his racecar from companies such as The Vette Stop Shop, Ferguson Enterprises, MT&T Yellow Pages, Abingdon Printing, and System Support Services, for Club events such as the SCCA national runoffs.

During these years, Miller helped grow his family business and met the love of his life, Julie, and started a family. "I realized at this point that if I wanted to race professionally, I'd have to attract sponsors. So Julie and I started studying what sponsors wanted, how they looked at racing, how to present myself professionally, and how to put programs together that would interest them. It seemed a natural progression for me to go to Trans-Am or some type of road racing."

He tried his hand at Trans-Am twice before really plunging in. In his "homebuilt" car, he qualified for the Trans-Am race at Mid-Ohio in 1994 and made the field, but the car expired early, placing him 35th. "My program wasn't quite ready for Trans-Am," chuckles Miller. He knew he could perform, but the car had let him down. He sold his car sponsorship with a newspaper ad in Canada and joined Flip Groggins as co-driver for an IMSA race, The Moosehead Grand Prix. "I got to drive the majority of the three-hour race, and put the car on the podium with Irv Hoerr and Johnny O'Connell. I was pumped." This gave Miller the confidence for his second attempt at Trans-Am. The attempt came at the Road Atlanta Trans-Am race in 1995. He finished 13th and won the "Raybestos Rising Star of the Race" award. This confirmed his decision to jump into Trans-Am in 1996. Winning "Rookie of the Year" would be his goal.

Miller repainted his old car, and according to Dorsey Schroeder, made it "one of the coolest paint jobs I've ever seen." He also made a pitch to a potential sponsor. The potential sponsor, Tim Hohmann, used to bring his Corvette into the auto repair shop where Miller worked, and had formed a fledgling company named PLCDirect, known today as AutomationDirect. Hohmann was interested in sponsorship, but his company was not yet a major player in its industry. The only sponsorship he could offer Miller was to help with race tires and to pitch in at any events he or his employees could attend. Hohmann could even be found helping with an engine or gearbox change at the races.

"We struggled in 1996, but we struggled on national TV," Miller remembers. He made it to the races, and by the time of the Lime Rock race, he was even finishing them. He was also barely in the rookie points lead. Realizing the limitations of his home-built chassis, Miller made an even bigger commitment to his goal; he sold his house to raise the funds needed to buy a used professional chassis from the man who had become his mentor, Paul Gentilozzi. This might not have been so unprecedented if Miller had been a bachelor, but he was married with two children.

Johnny's biggest supporter in his dream of making a living in racing has been his wife, Julie. Together they formed Miller Racing, together they have run the race team, and together they made the decision to take the risk of buying the new chassis. It paid off. Miller began to finish better, even scoring his first Top Ten at Road America that year. By season's end, Miller had acquired the Rookie of the Year award. His commitment, along with the television coverage his success generated, appealed to AutomationDirect, so they and several other companies decided to join in sponsoring him.

Gradually, over the next few years, Johnny and Julie continued to build their team and up the ante on their efforts, edging ever closer to the front of the pack. In 1997, Johnny moved up higher in the points standing. In 1998, he qualified in the Fast Five on frequent occasions, a position that pays bonus points and money. And he scored his first podium finished, earning him the respect of his peers and giving him the nod for the 1998 "Most Improved Driver Award", as voted on by other drivers.

"From the start, with the cool paint job and awesome sponsor graphics, we have tried to look bigger and better than we really were," notes Miller. "Even when we didn't have new parts, we painted what we did have in order to look new. We've always presented our team and ourselves as professionally as we could, and we've worked hard to make a good impression on the track, on TV, and in the paddock. We've never lost sight of the fact that we're getting to do this because other people's companies were willing to trust in Miller Racing's ability to provide them with a great marketing investment."

For some, the 2000 Trans-Am race season may have made it look like Miller Racing had made it to the top. The team had a brand new 53-foot high-tech transporter to take the team to the races. The team was, and still is, always presented professionally, and Miller is always out in front. In the 2000 season, Miller qualified in the top six in 10 of the 11 races. The quality of the team in 2000, and the fact that Johnny had two pole positions, a new track record, and his first race win, at the San Diego Grand Prix, proved that Miller had the ability to be a winning professional race driver.

Because there is always a team with newer cars or a better motor program, racing is the truest example of an ever-moving target of competitiveness. Heading into the 2001 season and realizing the limitations of a small team, Johnny made the decision to join forces with a championship team. The race team that could provide this type of professional program was Rocketsports Racing, owned by two-time Trans-Am champion Paul Gentilozzi. Johnny Miller has joined Rocketsports as Paul's teammate for the 2001 Trans-Am season.

With the tremendous support both on and off the track of major sponsors AutomationDirect and Eaton Cutler-Hammer, along with associate sponsors Hitachi, P.E.P., AVG, Facts Engineering and UPS, the 2001 Trans-Am season is Miller's most promising yet.

"I am thankful to have come this far with the support of sponsors, family and friends," says Miller. "And I feel confident that with their continued support and God's blessing, I will continue to be all I ever wanted to be."