Grand-Am: Miller Barrett Racing - Montréal race

Miller Barrett Racing had a great start to the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montréal on Saturday, but a broken gearshift handle took the young team out of contention. The race was the team's second in a four-race test program this year in preparation for a full-season effort in 2010.

Dave Lacey of Toronto was unable to qualify the No. 48 Marquis Jet / IPC / Total Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car because of gearbox problems on Friday, so he had to start the race from the back of the GT-class grid. Heavy rain made the 4.361-km (2.708-mile) track treacherous, but that didn't deter him. He moved from 13th to fifth in class in the first few minutes of the two-hour race.

As the rain stopped and the track dried, Lacey pitted for slick race tires, but found the car handling wasn't as strong in dry conditions. After 39 minutes, the car's gearshift handle broke, forcing a 21-minute pitstop for repairs. Bryce Miller of Summit, N.J., took over and drove the last hour of the race, using it as a test session to continue the car's development.

Dave Lacey:  "We had a good setup for the wet. That showed in the first half hour of the race. But as the track dried, the car wasn't as good and I started losing ground to the leaders. Then the shift linkage broke. Bryce did a great job on his stint. We were dealt a bad card, but we made the best of it and the [lap] times were there at the end. This is a young team, with great days ahead of it."

Bryce Miller:  "We experienced a lot of growing pains today, but it's good that we finished the race and got a lot of data. We can use that to continue our growth and continue to learn, so we can close the gap to where we want to be. There is still a long way to go, but we'll keep our heads down and learn everything we can from the next couple of races."

Bryce Miller races with the support of three international sponsors. Marquis Jet is the recognized leader in private jet cards because it's the only program that offers exclusive access to NetJets – the gold standard in private aviation – 25 hours at a time. IPC Information Systems is a leading provider of mission-critical communications solutions to financial services firms. Total Lubricants is the world's fourth-largest publicly traded integrated international oil and gas company.

– brycemiller.net –

From Sylvia Proudfoot