Jim Miller

[wingman]

Since somebody "lost" my previous posts, here again are some photos of the remarkable Jim Miller and his exotic pusher Racers. Jim startd racing about the time I was born (ie a LONG time ago). He won a couple of national Championships when I was a kid (how many of you knew there even WAS any Air acing in the 1950s?). By the time I met the man in the late 70s, he was well on the way to developing his first pusher Racer, #73, into a serious Gold contender. As can be seen in this shot from Mojave 1978, these airplanes were tiny.

[wingman]

Here's #73 at Mojave 1979...

[wingman]

Eventually #73 morphed into a slightly larger 2 seater -- Is this the only two seater in the history of Formula 1? Jim would go anywhere to race -- this shot was taken at an obscure race in 1986 at Richland Washington. My big memory from this race is doing several fast laps of the race course early one morning in the back seat of a Vari-Eze. Definitely one of the more interesting photo flights I've done!

[wingman]

At Reno 86, a month later, Jim (the short one) discusses matters with a rather slender Jon Sharp (the tall one). This illustrates an edge Jim always had over most of his competitors -- a forty or more pound weight advantage makes a huge difference in a 500 pound racer, and short stature is a similar advantage when minimum frontal area is an issue!

[hattend]

I'm sure going to miss Jim Miller. I love the plane and admired the man.

I always wanted to see him make a pass on the outside of Nemesis coming down to the finish.

Don