All in the family
Dragster racing turns into a Miller family event

By Caleb Regan

August 14, 2008

Blaine and Ashley Miller don’t remember going to the races for the first time.

The reason for that demonstrates how ingrained racing is in the Miller family.

“They were two months old when they first went to the races,” their father Kevin said. “They’ve grown up with it all their lives.”

The seeds that were sown at that time now lead to a family-wide involvement in the sport for the Eudora family of four.

Kevin began racing 22 years ago. In fact, the car he bought in high school, a 1975 Chevy Nova, is the car he races at events today. Then when Blaine reached age 7, he wanted a piece of the action. Dad responded by purchasing the necessary parts and, along with Blaine, constructed a junior dragster from the ground up.

A 9-year-old Blaine will bump up into the next age bracket a year from now, and 7-year-old sister Ashley will man the cockpit of the junior dragster.

Kevin and Blaine then will build a newer, faster dragster for Blaine, and the racing threesome will compete at events in Topeka together.

So far during the summer of 2008, Blaine and Kevin both have two first-place finishes. The mirrored success ends there, though, as Blaine has racked up two runner-up finishes while Kevin has one.

With 1,154 points Blaine is second out of four competitors in points for his division — class C of a National Hot Rod Association junior drag racing league, which consists of 8-and 9-year-olds. Samantha Little, leads Blaine by three points.

If he has anything to say about it, that won’t be where he is in the standings when the season concludes.

“Winning,” Blaine said when asked about the best part of dragster racing.

(. . . story continue at SOURCE: Eudora News