Drifting Championship Win for Rhys Millen's Formula Drift GTO
August 28, 2005
Steven Herbert, From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Shav Glick - Motor Sports
LATimes.com
Millen Loses final bout but Gets Drift Title
Formula Drift, the Japanese motor sport showcases two cars sliding through corners at high speed, tires squealing and smoking, as close together as their drivers' talents — and nerve — allow.
Rhys Millen, a New Zealand native who lives in San Juan Capistrano and runs a performance-parts manufacturing plant in Huntington Beach, held an 11-point lead after events in New Jersey, Atlanta, Houston, Sears Point, Calif., and Chicago —
all sellouts.
Prior to the event -
"We want to rock the boat and make General Motors the first domestic manufacturer to win in an import-oriented series with a V-8-powered car," said Millen, 32, who drives a Pontiac GTO, "slightly modified for drifting."
Millen, better known as a rally driver before he discovered drifting, comes from a family of racers. His father Rod holds the unlimited speed record for the Pikes Peak hill climb, and his uncle Steve won numerous endurance sports car races. Rhys (pronounced Reece) also was a Pikes Peak class champion several times.
"It was rallying, really, which turned me toward drifting," the younger Millen said. "I found it to be an extension of rallying. The sports carry similar driving skills, disciplines and demands for consistency while in a controlled environment."
Rhys Millen was having a great night until the final of Saturday night's Formula Drift competition at Irwindale Speedway.
Millen won his first three tandems and appeared headed toward victory in the final when his Pontiac GTO clipped a pylon. In a sport in which the winner is based on judges who evaluate drivers' execution and style, the final against Chris Forsberg was ruled too close to call and a runoff was ordered.
In the runoff, the steering on Millen's car locked going into a corner on the first run, causing it to go into quite a dramatic angle, he said.
After the same thing happened on the next corner, Millen said that rather than risk the possibility of losing control of the car and crashing into a wall, he decided to back off on the second run, giving Forsberg, who lives in Burbank, his first victory.
"We've been struggling with overheating temperatures on our power steering," said
Millen, whose season-long championship was his first in 13 years of racing, mainly in rallies. "We run a lot of trick little bits to make the car perform the way we see it do."
Millen was the top qualifier and earned the championship of the circuit, in which drivers maneuver their cars into controlled sideways slides at high speeds through a marked course, when Samuel Hubinette was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Hubinette was second in the standings before Saturday.
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Photo from Round 5:
