Tom Glatch

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27th Annual Millers at Milwaukee

by Tom Glatch July 11, 2022

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.

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