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Miller Time - Taking stock of the event

Events leading up to crash Saturday night still hazy The first Le Mans 24 Hours for American GT racer Bryce Miller is finished, and to say it was a whirlwind would be putting things mildly. Unfortunately for Miller at the rest of the JMW ...

Events leading up to crash Saturday night still hazy

The first Le Mans 24 Hours for American GT racer Bryce Miller is finished, and to say it was a whirlwind would be putting things mildly. Unfortunately for Miller at the rest of the JMW Motorsport team, the Aston Martin Vantage crashed near the six-hour mark Saturday. He tried to recollect his thoughts from the accident in his final Le Mans blog.

Le Mans finished with four of my friends on the podium - Wolf Henzler, Leh Keen, Richard Westbrook and Dominik Farnbacher. Also Marco Holzer and the team I scored second place with at Spa - BMS Scuderia - were third in GT2 It was fun to watch the celebration at the end and to have people to cheer for in the event.

We struggled with braking system issues all week, which undoubtedly affected our lap times. Unfortunately, our race efforts started to unravel around 8:30 pm Saturday. Rob Bell was pulling some great times in the Vantage, but we became sidelined in the garage for 30-plus minutes while the team repaired a broken steering pump that contributed to an off for Rob. He drove the car back to the pits as best he could with limited visibility due to the steering fluid on the windshield, which later contributed to another off and stop that I had to make after the car was repaired. Otherwise the steering appeared okay after the repair and I was coming to the car after the stop.

At the end of my stint and two laps before our next pit stop, I had an impact with the wall at the end of the Porsche Curves that ended our race. I sustained a pretty good concussion and am quite confused about the events leading up to the accident, especially after spending an hour at the site Sunday. The car had managed to get way offline and then veered back in the opposite direction of the next corner towards the wall for what was almost a direct head-on impact of 25 to 30 Gs. My doctor says it is normal at an impact like this to not remember the exact moments leading up to such a severe incident, but I cannot assume anything before knowing what happened. The next days will be important for me to review data and talk with the team about the car's condition in a hope that there may be something I can learn or take from what has happened.

Whatever the case, I am grateful to JMW Aston Martin for the opportunity to drive at Le Mans. The experience has been a swing of emotions, but just that I've driven at this famed event has been a tremendous privilege and I will not forget the entire set of events that occurred over this week to deliver the experience that is Le Mans. I hope to come back and have the opportunity for redemption.

-source: alms

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