It saddens me greatly to report the loss of a friend. Danny Miller passed away on September 25, 2012, at home with his family. Many of you know Danny as a fierce competitor, and a great friend; because Danny would not only love to beat you on the track but also help you in your pits. It just the kind of guy Danny was. He dedicated much of his life to the sport of drag racing but also to his family.
To see Danny with his kids and grandkids was a sight to behold; almost like watching him at the track helping others, only better. He loved and supported each of his kids in their own way, in the way that they needed him to be and they have all be wildly successful in their own right.
Danny is who everyman wants to be. He could work magic with a car: rebuild motors, transmissions, bodies, chassis and it didn’t matter what kind of car although rumor has it he prefers Fords. He loved to hunt and trap; not only did he love to hunt and trap, he was great at it. He threw as much energy at his hunting and trapping as he threw at his racing. Hard to believe that one man had that much energy to devote to two passions that he loved equally and completely but he managed to find the time.
The one side of Danny that many of you may or may not have known was his ability to run a successful business. If your reading this its because he built this business called Rear Gears from nothing to employing several people. Not many of us can say they started with an idea and the development of that idea led to the creation of several good, well paying jobs for people.
I personally got to know Danny late in his life and I’m proud to say that he was a friend for many years. He not only taught me about rear ends, third members, and business, but about love, life, family and what it means to be a man. Watching Danny face his cancer for the last couple of years emphasized to me what that means. He fought a courageous fight. When his group of doctors determined that their treatment was not effecting the cancer, he bravely made the decision to stop treatments and put his fate in God’s hands. He didn’t seek pity or sympathy he just simply trusted in the Lord to make his last days on Earth as good as they could. If you saw Danny at Cordova in August, you know they were as good as they could be.
We here at Rear Gears will mourn the loss of a great racer, teacher, friend, and partner. We will strive to continue running Rear Gears just as Danny did with honesty, integrity, and a sense of purpose and not forget what is important in life.
Godspeed Danny!
