ILMC - Miller Returns To TOTAL 24 Hours Of Spa Looking To Improve One Spot

SUMMIT, July 26, 2011: Bryce Miller's first experience in the TOTAL 24 Hours of Spa concluded with the American racer standing on the podium holding a second-place trophy in 2009.

The New Jersey-based driver, who celebrates his 29th birthday today, is headed back to the famed Belgian circuit this week looking to improve that result by just one position and will do so with ProSpeed Competition, one of the strongest Porsche teams in Europe. Miller will co-drive the Belgian team's No. 74 Porsche 911 GT3-R with Dutch racer Paul Van Splunteren and Belgians Nicolas De Crem and Ludovic Sougnez in the Pro-Am Cup category.

"ProSpeed is a pretty accomplished team," Miller said. "I know them to have a lot of success. One of my former co-drivers from a couple years ago, Richard Westbrook - who Dirk Werner and I won the ALMS race at Road America in 2009 with - used to drive for ProSpeed. I've been aware and paid attention to that team because of that fact and because I've wanted to broaden my European experience, so they've been on my radar."

Miller is definitely broadening his European experience this year as this will be his third European endurance race overall in 2011 and his second at Spa. He finished fifth in the GTE Am class in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) Six Hours of Spa race in May, and the 4.35-mile Belgian circuit rates at or near the top of Miller's list.

"I've always liked to go back to Spa, it's one of my favorite racetracks," he says. "Plus, my first 24 hours there, I had a second place, so once you come that close to a win at a main event like that, it's hard not to go back. It's part of 'the disease.'

"There's nothing quite like the Eau Rouge sector (Turns 3, 4 and 5) at another racetrack. Experiencing that elevation change that's going on at Spa at those speeds is a really cool sensation. It's a really awesome sensation. I enjoy it."