Wendy & Group,
I have been searching my archives and came up with the following
information on Karol Miller's Bonneville history. I know that it is
incomplete, but, according to what I have for records, Karol first
appeared at Bonneville in C Gas C/S in 1956 with a '56 Ford Crown
Victoria posting a time of 139 MPH. He came back in 1957 with the same
car (this is when I first met him) and ran a 149 qualifying time,
setting a two-way average of 150.097. In 1958 he raised the record to
151.997 MPH. I don't have any record of him running in 1959 through
1962, but he may have had a post entry. By the way, his practice was to
drive the car from Texas to Bonneville, race it, then drive it home.
In 1963 new Production Classes were formed separating the 1953
Studebakers, which had begun to dominate the Gas Classes, from the rest.
A record was set by the Miller-Short entry in C Gas C/S, (becoming the C
Prod. C/S record) which I believe was Karol Miller's 1960 Ford with Jim
Short driving. In 1963 Karol Miller shows up in the Bonneville Program
with three entries, A, B, & E Production C/S, setting a record in E
Production C/S at 149.997 MPH. In 1964 Karol ran Ford Mustang in E
Production C/S, but Van Prothero raised the record that year almost ten
miles per hour to 159.221 MPH. This is the last time that I have records
of Karol running at the Salt.
I was eating lunch with Karol at the Stateline in 1958 (I ran C/GC in
1958, my first year) and trying to find out some info about his engine.
He was very tight lipped...to the point that when I asked him what cam
grind he was running (we both ran Isky Cams), he said that Ed
Iskenderian had asked him what he was running and he replied, "One of
yours!" He wouldn't even tell Isky which grind. Needless to say, I
didn't learn much in that conversation. I think that the reason he
disappeared from the scene was that Ford at that time was not able to
compete with the Chev. Van Prothero was the dominate entry for several
years. Later, when Ford developed the "Boss 302" engine, they were back
in the game.
Karol was the man of the hour from 1956 through the early 60's then Van
turned heads much the same as Karol had when he showed up in 1961.
Just a little story to show how patient Van was...On his way to
Bonneville, in 1961, Van rolled his tow truck and the '57 Chev race car,
which he was flat towing. As I remember it was Thursday before he had
readied the '57 for inspection. He had spent several days with 2X4's and
jacks pushing the top back into race readiness. He proceeded to qualify
and then set a record at 138.726 MPH.
Tom, Redding CA 4:45PM PST
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