Leonard W. Miller: founder of the Black American Racers Association

4:30 PMLeonard W. Miller is the founder of the Black American Racers Association.

Born: 1934

His story: Miller grew up in suburban Philadelphia, where his mother worked as a housekeeper. His love for cars developed through conversations he heard on those estates. He secretly worked on his parents’ car when he was a youth.

He formed the Black American Racers Association in 1972 with Wendell Scott, Ron Hines and Malcolm Durham. Scott, the first black driver to compete in NASCAR, was an honorary chairman. The group promoted black driver development and also honored black drivers, mechanics and others in auto racing. BARA grew to 5,000 members.

Miller also was part of Vanguard Racing Inc. and became the first black owner to enter a car in the Indianapolis 500 in 1972. Miller wanted Benny Scott to drive the car, but blacks were denied entry into the Indy 500, so John Mahler, a white driver whom Miller tapped to work with Scott, ended up driving the car. A year later, Vanguard morphed into Black American Racers Inc., with Benny Scott as the primary driver. BAR qualified for the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix in 1975 as one of the top 60 race teams in the world. Benny Scott finished 11th in the race.

Miller later founded Miller Racing Group with his son, Leonard T. Miller. They became the first African-American team owners to win a track championship in NASCAR history when they won the stock car title at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, Virginia, in 2005.

Fast fact: Miller wrote the book Silent Thunder: Breaking Through Cultural, Racial, and Class Barriers in Motorsports, which details his life in auto racing, in 2004.

Quotable: “Living on those estates when I was real young, they talked about race cars and race horses,” Miller told Smithsonian magazine. “All of these rich, white families had all these rare cars that were beautiful and sounded good. So, I said that was for me. And that’s what started me off to a lifetime of races.”

The Undefeated will profile an athlete each day during Black History Month.