Wyatt Miller impresses at Dirt City in short course debut

Wyatt Miller might be only twelve years old, but he shined in his first ever foray into short course. Competing in Championship Off-Road‘s Dirt City Motorplex round last weekend, the micro sprint racer at recorded a pair of second-place finishes in both Pro SPEC races.

“Three spots better than I thought I could do,” Miller quipped on the podium after the Saturday event.

A fourth-generation racer of the great Earnhardt family and the reigning Tulsa Shootout winner, Miller started the Saturday race fifth. Dylan Parsons, Nick Visser, and Chris Van Den Elzen battled for the lead for much of the day, quickly building a gap over Miller and the field, before a caution bunched them back up.

Miller found a run in the second half and caught both Visser and Van Den Elzen. Parsons was too far away for Miller to catch him, but he staved off Van Den Elzen’s efforts to secure second.

Sunday saw similar events as Miller started midpack, got past Hunter VanZile for fourth, then had to close in on Visser, Parsons, and Van Den Elzen. Van Den Elzen was taken out of contention when Visser lost control in turn two and Van Den Elzen collided with him, causing the latter to suffer a flat tyre. Visser recovered, never losing the top spot despite the spin, and led the rest of the way while Miller battled Parsons before passing him on the inside with four laps remaining.

“It was definitely more than yesterday. Took me longer to get up there,” Miller commented.

While Parsons and Visser split the weekend in Pro SPEC, Trey Gibbs and C.J. Greaves swept the round in their classes. Greaves won all four races in both of the Pro side-by-side categories, while Gibbs led the way in Pro Lite.

It was not all smooth sailing in Gibbs’ case as he had to fight his way past Michael Funk and John Holtger. Despite his truck losing much of its body panelling, he managed to pass Holtger with three laps to go and never looked back.

Despite going four-for-four in SxS, Greaves failed to win in Pro 4 for the first time since the season opener, also at Dirt City, in May. The Sunday Mayhem at the Motorplex round was also the last instance where he failed to podium in Pro 4, which occurred again in Sunday’s Dirt City Off-Road National as he finished a dismal sixth.

With Greaves out of the picture on that front, Jimmy Henderson and Adrian Cenni notched the wins. Both drivers are now second and third in points, respectively, with Henderson trailing Greaves by thirty-four and Cenni by thirty-nine.

Defending Pro 2 champion Cory Winner, now doing a part-time schedule in 2024, notched his first win of the year on Sunday after holding off Ryan Beat. Beat settled for second to assume the championship lead by just one point over Mickey Thomas.

Class winners

Pro

Sportsman