COLUMN: Former local team owner Miller loved life, racing

Today on the pit box, we are going in a different direction. We are leaving the dusty dirt tracks for a look at a former local businessman who owned one of the most successful asphalt late model stock car teams this area has ever seen.

Jim Miller followed his older brother, Paul, into racing. The two brothers plus Bennett Clontz and Bud Williams built a 1955 navy blue No. 84 Chevy that Paul and Bennett drove.

“Paul was the better driver before he went to Vietnam. When he came back home, he lost his edge,” Williams recalled. “Jim drove the car some in those days. As much as he loved racing, he wasn’t a driver.”

Over the years, Jim stayed involved in racing while building his service station and wrecker business.

“Jim ran an honest business,” remembered lifelong friend and former Morganton city councilman Sidney Simmons. “Locals knew he would treat you fair, and his word was his bond.”

Jim started a go-kart racing team and won races from Pennsylvania to Florida. In 1985, Dennis Gallion, driving for Miller, won the World Karting Association (WKA) Gold Cup Championship. The WKA is the world’s largest go-kart racing organization, and the Gold Cup Championship is the equivalent to the NASCAR Cup Series championship.

The next season, Miller bought a Buick from Morgan Shepherd, and he and Gallion began racing in the Late Model Sportsman series. Midway through the 1986 season, Robert Pressley took over the driving duties.

“Dennis was a good driver and became a great driver, but jumping from go-karts to late model stock cars is tough. It was honestly unfair to him,” said Simmons.

Pressley then drove the car in ’86 and ’87.

“The first night I drove for Jim, I was at the track with my brother-in law, Tony Warren, sitting on the tailgate of my truck waiting for the race to start,” Pressley said. “Jim and Sidney walked up and asked if I wanted to drive the car that night. I think we finished second to Max Prestwood.

“Driving Jim’s car helped me win the Mid-Atlantic Late Model championship both years. Jim was in a lot of ways larger than life. I remember one night we were racing at Tri-County Speedway in Hudson. The track had a strict no-alcohol policy. Now if you knew Jim, you knew he loved a cold beer. Jim had rigged an oil can to hold a beer can. It looked good, but somehow, he got caught. They wanted to throw us all out until Jim turned on the southern charm and we were allowed to race.”

Legendary short track ace Bob Pressley and Richard Townson drove and won races for Miller.

Simmons remembered, “One night, we went to Concord Motor Sports Park past Charlotte and dominated the race. Afterwards, track officials came to bring Jim the winner’s prize money. They told him they had torn the car apart in post-race inspection and couldn’t find anything illegal. So, they were going to pay the prize money, but he was to never bring the car back.

“We got ran off for embarrassing the locals.”

In 1989, Jim and Lenoir driver Prestwood joined forces. The duo won 11 of 17 races they entered that season. The 1990 season is considered one of the best of any local car owner or driver. They won 35 features, including 11 in a row, en route to winning the track championship at both Hickory Motor Speedway and Tri-County Speedway plus the prestigious NASCAR weekly racing series National Championship.

“Jim was like a father to me. He treated my wife like his daughter and our kids like his grandchildren,” Prestwood recalls. “We were family. If we told Jim we needed something for the race car, it was there the next day. He loved racing, and he expected to win.”

Jim Miller was a hardworking, honest man that loved racing. He passed away in 2011 but helped mold the career of a future NASCAR Cup series regular in Robert Pressley. He helped Prestwood achieve the biggest accomplishment in weekly grassroots racing, but more importantly, touched the lives of everyone around him.

I asked legendary car builder Kerry Bodenhamer about Jim, and he summed it up perfectly by simply saying: “Jim Miller loved life.”

Thanks for the banter and see you next time on the Pit Box.