Remembering Bill Miller ’55

Welcome to the PAW Memorials podcast, where we celebrate the lives of alumni. For this episode, PAW Memorials editor Nicholas DeVito sat down with Steve McNamara ’55 to discuss Bill Miller ’55. Bill was a geologist and landman, but he was well known more for his vintage car racing.

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TRANSCRIPT

Nicholas DeVito: I am Nicholas DeVito, Class Notes and Memorials editor for Princeton Alumni Weekly. On this episode of the PAW Memorials podcast I am talking about Bill Miller from the Class of 1955 with his classmate Steve McNamara. Bill was well-known in the world of vintage racing cars. He raced a 1966 Shelby Mustang Hertz. Steve and I discuss his racing all through the Rocky Mountain area and the West.

Steve tells a story of how Bill got to and from all the races. He also talks about his last race, the Bill Miller tribute race.

By the numbers: Bill figured out that during his 39 years of racing the Shelby Mustang he had gone to 143 events — including all 15 of the famous Steamboat Springs festivities — and raced in an average of six races at each event. So, by the age of 89, Bill had driven in a total of 858 races.

Nicholas DeVito: Hello, I’m Nicholas DeVito, Class Notes and Memorials editor from Princeton Alumni Weekly. Today, I’m talking with Steve McNamara from the great Class of 1955. Steve is the class secretary and memorialist for the class, and we’re talking about Bill Miller, his classmate. Bill died Nov. 30, 2024, and he was a geologist and landman, but he was well known more for his vintage car racing. Steve, do you want to first get out of the way of what a landman is?

Steve McNamara: Yeah. A landman acts like a lawyer would in the oil and gas business. If somebody wants to lease or sell their property because a company wants to drill for oil or gas, the landman is the guy who works up the lease arrangements for them. That’s a specialized lawyer, but that’s basically what they do.

ND: Yeah. It’s a very interesting career. Being that he was a guy from New Jersey, but he was interested in geology. Usually, a landman is from Texas, Oklahoma, from the Midwest, out West. But he did wind up out West. He was in Colorado. When did you first meet Bill? Did you know him as an underclassman?

SM: Well, I forget who initiated the conversation, but as you mentioned, I’m the class secretary, and it’s my responsibility to talk with people in the class and get interesting information. Bill may indeed have volunteered his situation. I think, as I may have mentioned to you or mentioned to somebody, Bill was in an Elm Club at Princeton. People I’ve spoken with who were in Elm Club with him. One guy in particular said he marched to a different drum, wasn’t part of the regular Elm Club group. When he talked to me, he said that he was racing a Shelby Mustang in B production races out West. I thought, “Well, that’s interesting.” But the more I talked to him, the more I realized it was very interesting, and so wrote a piece in the club notes for covering that territory.

We talked back and forth a couple of times subsequently. Then, I was in a position to write there. I wrote all the memorials for the people passed on in our class. When I wrote his, I had more than the usual amount of information to write about it. I guess the thing I would mention is that while he was at Elm Club, an undergraduate, he wasn’t especially remarkable. He didn’t stand out. Again, as a person in the landman field, I don’t think he was especially remarkable there. But he sure was remarkable in the field that fascinated him. That’s why it was very enjoyable to make contact with him initially and then to keep working on it.

ND: Yeah. He was well known in the vintage racing car world, especially in the Rocky Mountain area. I know with your background as a journalist in motorsport. I mean, as you got to know him, it must have been a fascinating person to get to know. One of the things I always love is how Princeton alums, you might not know someone as an undergrad, but through Reunions and through Class Notes, you get to keep meeting your classmates over and over. I wonder how you got connected when you saw that he was racing.

SM: Yeah. That was an especial interest of mine since I had spent quite a lot of time after I... Well, I spent 70 years in the newspaper business, but a number of those years had been spent in Europe covering Grand Prix auto racing there. This was a different kind of racing. He was racing B production cars, which is not all that remarkable except for a number of aspects of it. The car he raced was a Shelby Mustang. People who initially learned his story think, “Shelby? It was what? A Shelby Mustang? What are they?” Then, I mentioned, “Oh yeah. Well, he got it from Hertz.” “Wait a minute-

ND: That’s the most intriguing part.

SM: ... you got a race car from Hertz. How did that work?” Then, I get to fill them in on how it came about that the Hertz Corporation had in its stable about a thousand race cars.

ND: I mean, I can’t imagine renting a Shelby Mustang even back then because, I mean, that car... You had mentioned in his... or maybe in one of your notes that before they allowed you to rent it, you had to prove that you could actually handle this vehicle. Is that correct?

SM: Yeah. That was true, but when I said to Bill, “What were the qualifications to get a rental Hertz Shelby Mustang?” He said, “Oh, well, you had to pay roughly twice the usual rental fee, and you had to pass a test.” I said, well, “What was the test?” He said, “You had to drive it around the block.” I said, “That was it. You just had to drive it around the block.” He said, “Yeah, that was it.”

Also, the story about how Hertz happened to have a race car to rent was fascinating. Well, in the early ’60s, Hertz was linked up with Chevrolet. They had the ability to rent you a Corvette if you went in the door and you wanted a very racy, sporty car. Then, in 1965, Hertz switched its allegiance from Chevrolet to Ford. The racy Ford that they could rent you was a Mustang. The problem was that unlike the Corvettes, which were pretty spicy, could be, Mustangs were not. They looked fast, but they weren’t.

Lee Iacocca, who was then a big deal at Ford, had a great idea, which was, let’s go to Carroll Shelby, who was a well-known race driver and who made cars. He had made a car called a Cobra, which he’d stopped making. They got Carroll Shelby to turn out a whole bunch of Mustangs, specially modified, and they were painted Hertz colors, painted black with [yellow] stripe on them. There were a thousand of them that Shelby had turned out that were sent to Hertz and were made available to people.

Now, did Bill Miller rent one of those from Hertz? No, he didn’t. Those cars were raced in 1965/’66. Bill got his Hertz Shelby Mustang in 1981. It was 15 years old when he got it. That’s part of the interesting story because he raced it until [2020]. He raced it for 39 years. By then, it was, I believe, a 55-year-old race car. There aren’t a lot of those running.

ND: No.

SM: That was the miracle, half the miracle, that he could keep this race car running and do quite well in it.

ND: When he got it, you said he got it secondhand. It already had about 100,000 miles on it?

SM: Yes.

ND: Then, he restored it, correct?

SM: Yes.

ND: Because before that, I believe, he had a Ferrari.

SM: Still had a Ferrari.

ND: He still had the Ferrari. OK.

SM: In writing his obituary, I spoke to some other people that were members of the same group that he did a lot of his racing with. It was called the Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing. That was four words. I said to this fellow, “I knew Eric. Well, did he have any other cars?” He said, “Well, not that he raced, but I went by his house shortly after he died and there was a Ferrari.” Well, it was called a Dino Ferrari, was the name of it back in those days. But that was just his pride car. The car he went racing in was this 1966 Shelby Mustang.

The second half of the Miracle as it were, was that the way you deal with racing antique cars or any cars is you tow them to the race because you’ve got them all set up to race, not to be driven to the grocery store. But Bill didn’t even have a trailer to pull his car to these races. He drove them. He and his lady friend would pile their stuff in the Shelby, drive sometimes 100 miles in it to the race, and pitch a little tent they’d sleep in, and then they’d get into the races. At these events, there’d be an average sometimes of six or eight different events that he’d be in. He computed it once. When he quit racing, he said he’d logged 240,000 miles in this car that was 55 years old. He kept using it not only to race in the races but to drive to and from them.

ND: I mean, that’s just impressive. In today’s cars, you can’t get 200,000 miles on it. Race cars are not known to get 200,000 miles on it. The fact that he was doing this... He had to be one of one that was doing this in this type of car and driving it, not trailering it. Everyone must have known who he was because he came driving in.

SM: Yes. He was a legend in the whole classic car field, at least out in the Rocky Mountain area. When he retired ... He retired from racing at the age of 89. He was given as an honor ... There was a Bill Miller tribute race. What that meant was that all the cars present for that event ... Well, they all went around the course, but they all kept a diplomatic distance in back of Bill who was allowed to cross the finish line first.

ND: That’s great. You had mentioned, too, I believe it’s ... because in classic car racing, you’re not always striving to be at the front. You just want to be there. You’re not rubbing tires. You’re just in the race. But the fact that they had a special tribute race to him, that shows a lot about what he did. I just think that’s great. Is there anything else we’re missing about Bill Miller and his racing career here?

SM: Well, I did ask Eric, a fellow I came to know, “Well, how good was Bill?” He said, “Well,” as we’ve just, I think, maybe covered, “the fact is in antique or classic car racing, you don’t necessarily fight your way to the front. Just being there is enough when you’re driving an old car.” This was indeed an old car. It was 55 years old when it came to the end of the line. The other drivers in the sport thought he was astonishing. He was really a legend within the field there. One guy said, “Well, we were really sorry to see Bill pass on, but it was really noble that you are giving him the acknowledgment that he deserves.”

ND: That’s great to hear. I think we can end it there. I think Bill was a legend in the vintage car racing world. I’m glad we can do him and his Hertz Shelby Mustang justice because 240,000 miles on a vintage car is unheard of. I’m glad we can shine a light on it.

SM: No. Glad to be able to assist in that noble endeavor.

ND: Yes. Thank you for your time, Steve.

ND: The PAW Memorials podcast is produced by Nicholas DeVito and Princeton Alumni Weekly. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. You can read transcripts of every episode at paw.princeton.edu. Music for this podcast is licensed from Universal Production Music.