VOL. 51 ISSUE 39 SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 P83
started in the dirt and had several
junior dirt track championships
under his belt before making the
switch to road racing.
"Yeah, dirt track and moto-
cross, I did my whole junior ca-
reer," Miller said of his begin-
nings. "And yeah enjoyed it, but
just wrecked myself too many
times, mainly in motocross. Dirt
track I was good at, but it was just
sort of a hobby of mine… I took
the racing serious but not as seri-
ous as I did with my motocross.
Every time I started getting quick
on motocross I seemed to write
myself off, so I went looking for
something different to do and
found road bikes."
And it was a wise switch. Miller
didn't stay in the comfort zone of
home and instead focused on his
goal of becoming a professional
road racer. And that meant mak-
ing the move to Europe. Miller
raced in both the CEV (Spanish)
and IDM (German) Champion-
ships in 2010, but success came
during his second year over-
seas when he won the German
IDM 125cc Championship. That
and a second-place finish in the
CEV Buckler Spanish Champi-
onship in Albacete earned him
a seat in the Moto3 Champion-
ship for Caretta Technology. It
was a learning year for Miller. He
then moved on to ride for Racing
Team Germany Forward Racing
where he finished seventh in the
Championship and was the high-
est ranked Honda. Now he's on
the Red Bull KTM Ajg team and
he's leading the title chase.
The importance of making that
huge leap to another continent to
race has started to be felt here in
the U.S. over the last few years
with the decline of the national
championship, something that
has been the case in Australia for
a bit longer.
"I think our two countries are in
the same boat," Miller said. "It's
a hard thing to do. If you want to
be somebody or do something,
than the first thing you've got to
do, especially in this sport, is go
to Europe. It's what you've got to
do.
"It was a big gamble for me,
well not for me, but for my fam-
ily. I felt a lot of pressure for sure
with money and countless other
chance on the MotoGP production
Honda. "And I'm 99 percent sure I'll
be hitting the brakes at the finish line,
for sure."
Miller is not naïve about the chal-
lenge before him and he realizes
it's going to take a big change in
his physical training. And since he's
leading the Moto3 World Champion-
ship, those preparations are going to
have to wait until after Valencia.
"I'm going to have to train a lot to
go from a 176 pound bike to a… what
are they?...331 pound
bike. It's a big step, maybe
even more. For sure
physical training is the
main thing to try and put
on muscle and be ready. It
looks like I'm going to be
riding one after the other.
So straight from Moto3 to
MotoGP, so I don't reckon
I can put on that much
weight overnight so we'll
see what happens. "
Miller fields questions on his move to MotoGP
at the pre-race press conference at Aragon.
