Lance Miller and Team Travel to Le Mans to Raise Awareness for Chip Miller Charitable Foundation

CARLISLE, PA – In the Le Mans Museum, currently awaiting its caretaker, Lance Miller, Partner and Co-Owner of Carlisle Events, Inc., is one of the rarest and most historic American automotive icons anywhere in the world. The magnificently-restored by Kevin Mackay and his team at Corvette Repair Inc. the #3 1960 Briggs Cunningham Corvette, the first Corvette ever to win a Le Mans Class (GT 5000) race, is ready to head back out to the track where it claimed its famous victory five decades ago.

Lance Miller -- son of the late Chip Miller, co-founder of world-renowned Carlisle Events, Inc.-- proudly is bringing his beloved father’s lifelong dream to official realization in these early days of June. On June 12th, the #3 1960 Cunningham will be piloted around the Le Mans track by its only surviving original co-driver, John Fitch, for a celebratory parade lap. The Miller Family’s Cunningham #3 – which held its winning status for over 40 years until 2001 – will be back to France’s premier racing venue with 92-year-old Fitch at the wheel deftly guiding the historic Corvette around the Le Mans circuit exactly 50 years after the history-making win in 1960.

To underscore the significance of the #3 car’s accomplishment, in 1960 the four Corvettes at Le Mans were the only cars representing the United States at the time. Not only did the #3 Cunningham win its class and hold the glory for 40 years, it only lost the title to another Corvette when, in 2001, a C5R won the GT class and ironically finished 8th overall, precisely the same as the #3 had done 41 years prior.

In a phone interview with John Fitch prior to his departure for Europe, the one-time P-51 Mustang pilot, engineer, and hall of fame racecar driver underscored the significance of these milestone victories by exclaiming Corvettes, of yesteryear and today, are true racing forces to be reckoned with due to American innovation. Fitch firmly supports “Yankee ingenuity all the way!”

Fitch went on to point out that “[Lance] is a faithful son to see his dad’s dream through” after four years of intensive logistical planning with hundreds of involved parties including General Motors. While the pomp and prestige of the Cunningham #3’s return to France is extraordinary, Lance Miller, Judy Miller (Chip’s wife), John Fitch, and Angela Morsa (President of the Chip Miller Charitable Foundation) would concur the highest goal is to honor Chip Miller. Their aim, through the fulfilled dream of returning to France with the Cunningham #3 and Fitch, is to raise much-needed awareness to the Foundation and the fight against the little-known disease called amyloidosis. It is this not-well-understood condition which cut Chip Miller’s remarkable life short with his passing on March 25, 2004.

Amyloidosis occurs when excessive amounts of abnormal protein, called amyloid, build up in one or more organs to cause a malfunction. As an abnormal protein, amyloid originates in bone marrow. The heart, kidneys, nervous system and gastrointestinal tract are most often affected by the disease.

The Chip Miller Charitable Foundation (www.chipmiller.org), as per its mission statement, was created “…to empower people with the knowledge and understanding of amyloidosis for early detection, ensuring a better quality of life for those afflicted with the disease and to help science find the cures.”

Lance Miller is steadfastly hopeful that his team’s epic journey across the Atlantic will exponentially build awareness to the dreaded disease that left an irreplaceable hole in both his family’s collective life as well as the world’s automotive community.

To learn more about how you or your organization can make a difference, visit www.ChipMiller.org.

Within just days of heading to the airport to meet up with the priceless #3 Cunningham, Miller reflects on his father, mentor and best friend. “My father was often heard saying ‘life is good!’ He not only lived through these simple words, he taught me and many others to live by them as well. I’m fortunate to have had him as a major part of my life…I don’t take a second we had together for granted. ‘Dad, this trip is for you…enjoy the view!’”


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Information about the Chip Miller Charitable Foundation is available to consumers and journalists via the Internet at:
www.ChipMiller.org / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WES77NLxCpY


CONTACT: Angela Morsa, Foundation President, (215) 885-3351

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What Everyone Should Know

Amyloidosis occurs when enough abnormal protein, called amyloid, builds up in one or more organs to cause a malfunction. As an abnormal protein, amyloid originates in bone marrow. The heart, kidneys, nervous system and gastrointestinal tract are most often affected by the disease.

Signs and symptoms of amyloidosis depend on the organs affected. The wide range of symptoms makes it difficult to diagnose. For more information about amyloidosis – including signs/symptoms -- visit the Chip Miller Charitable Foundation website http://chipmiller.org/about_amyloid.php.

The mission of the Chip Miller Charitable Foundation is to empower people with the knowledge and understanding of amyloidosis for earlier detection, ensuring a better quality of life for those afflicted with the disease and to help science find the cures. To learn more about amyloidosis and to make a donation to the Chip Miller Charitable Foundation, visit our site at www.ChipMiller.org.

For more information about the Foundation, to make donations or purchase pins, please call or visit our Web site (www.ChipMiller.org).

Chip Miller Charitable Foundation

1000 Bryn Mawr Road
Carlisle, PA 17013

www.ChipMiller.org

717.243.7855

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