tylor miller |
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PHOTOS : MILLER FAMILY ARCHIVES |
“ I ’ m okay with fourth ; it ’ s a lot better than fifth or sixth ,” Miller insists . “ Obviously we want to be number one , just like anybody else , but we ’ re happy just to be out there racing . It can be disappointing sometimes , but I always try to look at the upside of everything .”
There ’ s a lot of upside for Miller these days . His father , Russell , put together a top-notch team that includes chassis builder and tuner Andy McCoy , as well as fuel pump guru and crew chief Mike Kopchick of Rage Fuel Systems , which supplies most of the NHRA ’ s top nitro teams .
“ I can ’ t say enough about Mike ,” McCoy stresses . “ He builds the engines , builds the fuel pumps , runs the dyno , just gives us the best power . And his son , Tommy , he ’ s on the team and he ’ s really coming along , too . It ’ s just really neat to see the father-and-son duo at work together there , as well as the father-and-son duo of Russell and Tylor . It ’ s just neat for me to be a part of it all .”
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Miller grew up drag racing . At just nine years old he hit the track , but unlike so many others his first racing ride was a far cry from a Jr . Dragster . Instead , Miller attacked the eighth mile in an early- ‘ 80s , Fox-body Mustang outfitted with a 355 Chevy motor . “ We basically built it out of spare parts that Daddy had laying around from racing over the years ,” he says .
With his father as crew chief , Miller began his career in the footbrake class at 710 Dragway , near Rowland , North Carolina , just across the state line from their Denton , South Carolina , home . “ It ’ s not like this now , but back in 1999 it was basically a run-what-you-brung , outlaw kind of place , which is how I got to race so young there ,” Miller explains . “ That ’ s where I picked up my nickname , too , because there were a lot of Indian guys that used to race there and that ’ s what they got to calling me , ‘ Youngblood .’”
Miller raced the Mustang for about three years ,
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then stepped up to a ’ 92 Camaro with a 427 small block on nitrous . His dad swapped in a two-barrel carburetor to slow it down a little , since the first pass Miller made with the Camaro he went from 7.70s in the Mustang to a 6.20 — with no nitrous . “ I remember Daddy saying , ‘ Are you okay ?’ and I was like , ‘ Yeah , I ’ m fine , let ’ s do it again , but let ’ s shoot the nitrous this time !’”
In 2005 , an already experienced 15-year-old Miller entered the Camaro in an ORSCA event at Jackson , South Carolina , competing in Limited Street with a nitrous-boosted 632 Fulton engine up front and no wheelie bars out back .
“ I was still underage so I was running under someone else ’ s license and I think I ended up qualifying eighth in a 16-car field for a substantial amount of money , especially for us low-budget racers ,” Miller recalls . “ So anyway , for first round my dad told me , ‘ I ’ m gonna ’ wick it up on the starting line , so be ready for anything ,’ and I went up there OUTLAW ROOTS and it did a major
Rather than begin his wheelie to where it driving career in Jr . hit the back bumper Dragsters , Tylor Miller got a little and spun the his feet wet in a Fox-body tires . When it spun
Mustang before stepping up to a nitrous-assisted ‘ 92 it slammed the front Camaro in his early teens . end back down and Even though he frequently just to be safe I did raced at outlaw tracks , what anybody who Miller ’ s youth wasn ’ t always knows how to drive welcomed by promoters and fellow racers . race cars would do ; I pulled off to the side and shut the car off so I didn ’ t oil down the whole track . So then a guy comes up to see if I ’ m okay and when he saw how young I was he just told me to stay in the car while they got me off the track , because even though I was 15 I was pretty small and probably looked like I was 10 or 11 . Anyway , when we got back to the trailer the car was fine and it fired right up , but then a lady came over and said to my dad , ‘ I ’ m not telling you your son can ’ t race ; I ’ m just telling you he can ’ t do it here ,’ and that was the end of my ORSCA experience .”
Miller raced on 10.5-inch tires almost exclusively before getting his first chance in a Pro Mod-style ride in 2007 , shortly after turning 17 . He describes the car as a single-framerail ’ 97 Camaro with a cast-aluminum , 540 Chevy block , topped with a Littlefield supercharger . “ We went to Dunn-Benson , long before it looks like it does now as GALOT , and the track record at the time was about a 4.27 , I think . It wasn ’ t a race , we just went there to test , so it was my first blower car ever and it was a lot louder than my nitrous car and I was kind of freaking out , to be honest ,” Miller says .
“ I was on the phone with my mom and told her about how loud and obnoxious the blower car was and how I had butterflies in my stomach and how my dad just wanted me to go to 60 feet and turn it off . But I told her I wanted to run the full eighth mile and just get it over with . So she said to go ahead and tell Dad what I wanted
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May 2017 |
DragIllustrated . com | Drag Illustrated | 85 |