Since I was in Grade School I’ve had an interest in Formula 1 racing. Back then I had to read about these events two months after they happened in Road & Track magazine, but those stories transported me to exotic places like Monaco and Monza, and my heros Jim Clark, Jack Brabham, and our all-American driver and team, Dan Gurney. Over the years I lost interest until I could watch the races live on ESPN in the 1990s, following the exploits of the great Michael Schumacher and the Ferrari rebirth. Then it all became boring again, and the once beautiful machines becoming hideous, skate-wheeled monstrosities. That changed last year with the new ground-effects rules, plus the addition of Formula 1 races in Miami and later this year in Las Vegas.

The next issue of ⎘Linkage magazine (#014) features my cover story on the rebirth of Formula 1 in the United States and previews the Las Vegas event this coming November. You can find in newsstands later in September.

Harry Miller’s cars won ten Indianapolis 500 events, and his engines dominated championship racing in the U.S. for decades, claiming 39 Indy 500 victories. When Johnny Rutherford took the checkered flag in the 1976 500, his McLaren/Offy became the last victor powered by a Miller-derived engine – 33 years after Harry Miller’s passing. Miller’s carburetors were the choice of racers in the teens and twenties, and he consulted with E.L. Cord on the front wheel drive Cord L-29. This is just a sample of Miller’s genius.

Fearing the legacy of Miller’s accomplishments would fade with time, industrialist David Vogel Uihlein, Sr. founded the Harry A. Miller Club⎘ in 1989. Knowing these machines were born to run, Uihlein also wanted track time for club members. They rented The Milwaukee Mile in 1995 for the first of what would be the annual “Millers at Milwaukee” event.

This is a fitting location, since Harry Miller was born in Menomonee, Wisconsin, and The Milwaukee Mile is the oldest continuously running automobile racetrack in the world, with the first contest taking place in 1903. Unlike other vintage events, Millers at Milwaukee is different: no competition, no concourse judging, no restricted paddock access – just the opportunity for comradery, education, and exercising these thoroughbreds. Any front-engine Indy Car is eligible, along with pre-World War II Grand Prix racers. David Uihlein passed away in 2010, but Harry Miller’s legacy is in good hands. That was evident at the Harry A. Miller Club’s 27^th annual Millers at Milwaukee event on July 8^th and 9^th this year.

Kelly and I covered this event which is scheduled for the Winter 2022 issue of Linkage⎘ magazine.

Photos

Images © 2022 Tom & Kelly Glatch – All Rights Reserved

“Linkage” is an automotive magazine that was launched in 2021 by Donald Osborn along with Chester Allen and Jim Pickering, two editors I worked with at other publications. The quarterly publication is “Geared for the Automotive Life” and at over 180 pages per issue it is a remarkable achievement. Linkage 006 (Winter 2022) features my article on the second generation 1963-67 Chevrolet Corvettes, “Sting Ray Dreams.” You may check out Linkage here: linkagemag.com⎘