Mike Miller won the 60-lap "Red Race" in the Red, White, and Blue State Championship Series at Wisconsin International Raceway.
Kaukauna, Wis. (August 20, 1978) – Mike Miller swept to victory in the 60-lap feature of the final race of the Red, White, and Blue State Championship Series on Sunday afternoon at Wisconsin International Raceway before a crowd of 6,317, the largest ever to attend an event in the championship series since its inception in 1972.
The 32-year-old Wisconsin Rapids driver took advantage of a blistering right rear tire on Tom Reffner’s swift 1978 AMC Concord. Miller, driving a radical 1978 Olds Cutlass, took the lead on the 49th lap as he slipped to the outside of Reffner on the front stretch of the half-mile oval.
Kimberly’s Roger Regeth put his Camaro into the lead for the first five laps before being overtaken by Dave Watson, who received special permission from the United State Auto Club to bypass a USAC-sanctioned race that was taking place at another track the same afternoon.
Watson led only one lap before Marv Marzofka stormed past in his “Screaming Yellow Zonker” 1978 Camaro. Marzofka pulled to a four-car-length lead while Reffner snuck into the second position, slipping inside of Watson on lap 10.
Marzofka was cruising along comfortably until the 17th lap when he suddenly pulled into the pit area with a smoking engine.
With Marzofka in the pit area, Reffner inherited the lead, with Miller and Joe Shear right on his bumper. The three drivers raced about one-car-length apart until Reffner’s tire began to blister and Miller was able to get by on the 49th round.
Reffner held on to claim second, five lengths off the winning pace, with Shear third, Alan Kulwicki fourth, and Rich Somers in fifth.
Dick Trickle, who took seventh, claimed the overall point championship for the Red, White, and Blue Series for 1978. He totaled 2,210 points compared to Reffner’s total of 1,720.
Trickle, the winner of the first two races in the series, crashed his ’77 Pontiac Firebird he normally drives at a race in Anderson, Ind., Saturday night, and borrowed a ’74 Nova owned and normally driven by Jim Bohmsach.
Results –
1. Mike Miller, Wisconsin Rapids
2. Tom Reffner, Rudolph
3. Joe Shear, South Beloit, Ill.
4. Alan Kulwicki, Milwaukee
5. Rich Somers, Stevens Point
6. Dave Watson, Milton
7. Dick Trickle, Wisconsin Rapids
8. Jim Back, Vesper
9. Larry Schuler, Lockport, Ill.
10.Roger Regeth, Kimberly
11.Pat Schauer, Watertown
12.Jerry Eckhardt, Watertown
13.Al Schill, Franklin
14.Willie Goeden, Kewaskum
15.Doug Strasburg, Johnson Creek
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