The second and final round of Hoosier Park Racing & Casino’s 2014 Champion Driver Series highlighted the 14-race card on Saturday, September 27 and it was LeWayne Miller who stole the show.
After taking home top honours in the opening round of Hoosier Park’s inaugural Champion Driver Series earlier in the season, Miller accumulated a total of 83 points in the final round to win the grand prize, a one-year lease of a 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.
In its’ inaugural edition, the 2014 Champion Driver Series pitted the top 10 drivers at Hoosier Park Racing & Casino against one another, not once, but twice in a five-race challenge throughout the season. Miller, a 27-year-old Indiana native, accumulated a total of 47 points after the five races and was crowned the winner, walking away with the $5,000 prize of the first challenge.
With the points from round one carrying over to round two, Miller led the group of 10 drivers into the final round and earned one win, one second, one third, and two ninth place finishes in the five races of the challenge to take make a clean sweep of both rounds in the Champion Driver Series.
“I was nervous all day,” Miller, seemingly still in shock, noted in the winner’s circle. “I tried to forget about it and keep my nerves down. I felt good about my horses coming into tonight so I knew if I had a little luck I had a good shot but I tried not to think about it. I showed up tonight and just tried to do the best I could.”
After a ninth and a third place finish in the first two races of the challenge respectively, Miller found the winner’s circle in the third race of the challenge and scored 15 points with Starven Darven at 7-1. Using the long Hoosier Park stretch to his advantage, Miller found late racing room and Starven Darven used a :27.2 final quarter to coast home a winner in 1:52.4.
With a ninth place finish behind The Flight Rose in the fourth race of the challenge, Miller accumulated two more points but still held the lead by a narrow margin with 74 points heading into the final race. Ross Leonard was a close second with 67 points and Sam Widger just behind him in third with 62 points. Heading into the final race of the challenge, it appeared to be anyone’s game.
Miller secured the keys to the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray with a second place finish in the final race, earning nine more points, behind VC Scooter for trainer Grant Wilfong. Dismissed at odds of 10-1, VC Scooter rallied late in the lane to get up for second place honours behind Rocknroll Special and Ricky Macomber Jr.
“That is definitely the happiest I’ve ever been to finish second,” Miller noted after the race. “After talking with the trainer before the race, I knew he (VC Scooter) would be good, I didn’t want to get buried or locked in so I made sure I had him out when we turned for home.”
After the dust settled, Miller led all drivers with 83 points, Leonard finished second with 73 while Sam Widger and Brad Hanners tied for third place with 65 points.
“This is a really big deal,” Miller continued. “A few years ago I was just a fan watching all these guys drive. To win this challenge against this group of drivers and here at Hoosier Park is a really big deal for me. This was my first driver’s challenge I’ve ever been in and to win a car like this, it’s a really big deal.”
As the youngest driver in the group of 10, Miller is now a proud new owner of a one-year lease of a 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. In just his second full season as a driver, Miller has recorded 335 career victories and is on track to record his best season to date in the bike in 2014.
(Hoosier Park)