MARIETTA, Ga. — A winner on Midwestern paved ovals and on the American Speed Association trail, stock car racer Mike Miller passed away September 29 at the age of 80 after battling cancer.
Living in New Prague, Minn., at the time, Miller was a hobby stock driver in the early 1970s at Minnesota paved tracks Shakopee Raceway Park and Elko Speedway.
In late 1971, Miller was racing a late model stock car, competing in the Oktoberfest 200 at the LaCrosse Interstate Speedway in West Salem, Wis. By 1972, he was a regular in late model action, wheeling a 1969 Mercury.
In 1973, Miller debuted a fresh 1970 Mustang and got off to a fast start, winning NASCAR late model features at both Raceway Park and Elko in May. In late September, Miller ventured to Illinois’ Rockford Speedway for the track’s annual National Short Track Championships 200.
Described in a local newspaper story the next day as “slim, almost boyish-appearing,” Miller and his Mustang No.18 defeated six-time Rockford champion Joe Shear by about a half-lap margin at the banked, quarter-mile, paved oval with former ‘200’ winners Wayne Stallsworth and Ramo Stott trailing.
Relocating to Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., to be in the heart of Wisconsin late model racing, Miller competed regularly against the likes of Shear, Dick Trickle, Tom Reffner, Larry Detjens, Jim Back, Dave Watson and others.
Miller captured Wisconsin track championships at both the Dells Motor Speedway and Golden Sands Speedway in 1976. Statistics show Miller winning two more championships at Golden Sands, two at State Park Speedway and one at Capital Super Speedway.
He won a total of 27 feature races at Golden Sands, 25 at State Park, 23 at the Dells, 18 at LaCrosse and nine at Capital during his career, part of a total of some 116 career stock car wins.
Miller began racing with the ARTGO Challenge Series and won his first ARTGO main event in 1978, capturing the Wayne Carter Classic at Illinois’ Grundy County Speedway. He would repeat his Carter Classic victory the following year and end up with five career ARTGO wins.
In 1978, Miller debuted a new 1978 Olds Cutlass for short track action that he and Bob Uhlir (Mil-Lir Engineering) had designed and built. NASCAR legend Bobby Allison referred to it as the “Ugliest race car in America.”
Miller campaigned sporadically with ASA in the 1970s and 80s, becoming a full-time series regular from 1993 through 2001. He would win a career total of 16 ASA races, including a victory at LaCrosse in 1997 and his final series victory at Montgomery, Ala., in May of 2000. Five wins in 1999 helped Miller, now living in Georgia, finish second in the series standings – six points shy of the championship.
Besides his short track career, Miller competed in two NASCAR Cup races late in 1980, finishing 39th at Charlotte and 28th at Atlanta in a Ford.
