Is Miranda Throckmorton the next Sarah Fisher?

Fisher began racing Sprint cars at age 15 and it launched her into the Indy Racing League in four years. Throckmorton, a 15-year-old freshman at Avon High School, is going down the same road in an effort to get to the same place.

Throckmorton plans on running the regular shows this spring and summer at the ¼-mile oval in Bloomington, and at the 3/8ths-mile oval in Paragon. If Throckmorton/Morgan Racing has a good weekend (i.e. good finishes and good paychecks from purses) and hasn’t torn up too much equipment, they’ll head for Kokomo’s ¼-mile to finish out the three-day stretch. All three tracks run on dirt.

The plan is for Throckmorton to get all the experience she can in preparation for 2008, when she’ll be eligible to race in the United States Auto Club’s (USAC) national series. It requires drivers be 16.

“The goal is to run the whole (USAC Sprint) series, pavement and dirt,” Throckmorton said.

Throckmorton began driving Spring cas last season, entering 16 events at Paragon.

“We had a ton of motor problems,” she said. “It was a difficult year.”

Throckmorton has been driving since she was 4-1/2 years old. Her father, Bill, gave her a quarter Midget for Christmas. Since that December morning in 1996, Miranda’s career has been the focus of the Throckmorton family’s racing endeavors.

“My dad stopped driving when I started,” she said.

What else would you expect from a father who had raced Sprints and Midgets, and is from family with a rich racing heritage?

“Grant King” was my dad’s uncle,” Throckmorton said. “My dad bought his shops and we run our team out of them.”

King was a well-known Indy car and USAC mechanic, designer, and team owner, who regularly fielded innovative efforts in the Indy 500 from the 1960s to the 1980s. He died in 1999.

Miranda won 10 championships in quarter Midgets from 1996 through 2004. She added 600cc Micro Sprints in 2004 and ran Micro Sprints and USAC Kenyon Midgets – slightly smaller than full size with 120cc motors – in 2005. Throckmorton was fifth in the Kenyon series, run at the Indianapolis Speedrome, and had several top-fives and a couple of top-threes.

The horsepower jump to Sprint cars is dramatic, from 200 in the Kenyon to 600 and above in the Sprint car.

“It’s a challenge that I enjoy,” Throckmorton said.

She has an experienced teammate in Geoff Dodge, who won the Fast Track ion Indy Rookie of the Year Award at the Knoxville Nationals. It earned him five races ion the IndyPro Series. Dodge, 23, has an extensive background in Sprint cars.

“It’s great to have Geoff as a teammate,” Throckmorton said. “He has so much experience.”

The team has three Sprint cars, one for each driver and a backup. Throckmorton and her dad maintain them.

“We work on the race cars a lot,” Throckmorton said. “Geoff helps, too.”

Throckmorton also works with engine builder Chuck Snyder of Danville. It’s all part of the learning process.

“I do the tear downs, torque the heads, the different things,” she said.

Throckmorton maintains a 3.5 grade point average at Avon. She ran on the cross country and track teams at Avon Middle School, but didn’t continue in high school to concentrate on her racing career.

Sometimes she has problems with teachers, trying to explain why she has to miss days of school to go racing.

“Last year, we had a lot of trouble with that,” Throckmorton said. “But most of the time, it’s OK and they let me make up my school work.”

Throckmorton hopes to race in the IndyPro Series by age 19. It’s the primary development series for IndyCar and the Indy 500, her ultimate goal.

“I want to try to make a career out of racing,” she said.