Rhys Millen
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Rhys Millen (born in New Zealand), nephew of IMSA GTS driver Steve Millen, son of Rod and elder brother of Ryan, is one of the world's top competitors in drifting. Prior to that in he was a top rally driver in the US, and became the first works backed driver from a car manufacturer with GM in 2004 after narrowly losing to Ken Nomura in the US D1 Grand Prix exhibition event in 2003
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[edit] Career
After an unsuccessful try at rally driving, Millen became just the second champion in the short history of the United States' top drifting series, Formula D, just a year after his good friend, Samuel Hubinette, became the maiden series champ. Rhys has two wins in his Formula D career: the 2004 season finale at the Irwindale Speedway, and the 2005 season opener at the Wall Speedway in Wall Township, New Jersey. He became the highest placed non Japanese driver in the US round of the D1GP event in 2005, making it to the last 8 after beating Masato Kawabata, only to lose to Yasuyuki Kazama through a "One More Time" rerun. Rhys's father, Rod, also competes in drifting on occasion. In fact, Rod made his Formula D debut at the 2005 season finale at Irwindale, the same event where his son was crowned the champion.
Rhys has driven a Pontiac GTO drift car for 3 seasons (Winning in 2004 and 2005, but losing out to Hubinette in 2006), and will drive a Pontiac Solstice for the 2007 D1 Season. Red Bull has been a major sponsor of Rhys' drifting efforts, and the paint schemes of his 2006 GTO and Solstice. The "Red Bull Solstice" was unveiled in the Spring of 2006, but did not race in the regular season. The Solstice is scheduled to run in the World Championship, however.
Beside racing, Rhys is also a stunt driver for films such as The Dukes of Hazzard, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
[edit] Complete Drifting Results
(key)
[edit] D1 Grand Prix
| Year | Entrant | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Pontiac | Pontiac GTO | IRW TSU |
SGO |
EBS |
APS |
ODB |
EBS |
TKB |
0 | ||
| 2005 | Pontiac | Pontiac GTO | IRW TAN |
ODB |
SGO |
APS |
EBS |
FUJ |
TKB |
12 | 25 | |
| 2006 | Red Bull Pontiac | Pontiac Solstice GXP | IRW |
SGO |
FUJ |
APS |
EBS |
SUZ |
FUJ |
IRW DNQ |
0 |
[edit] Formula D
| Year | Entrant | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Pontiac | Pontiac GTO | Rd. 1 |
Rd. 2 |
Rd. 3 |
Rd. 4 |
|||||
| 2005 | Pontiac | Pontiac GTO | Rd. 1 |
Rd. 2 |
Rd. 3 |
Rd. 4 |
Rd. 5 |
Rd. 6 |
1 | ||
| 2006 | Red Bull Pontiac | Pontiac GTO | Rd. 1 |
Rd. 2 |
Rd. 3 |
Rd. 4 |
Rd. 5 |
Rd. 6 |
Rd. 7 |
2 | 596.00 |
| Pontiac Solstice GXP | |||||||||||
| 2007 | Red Bull Pontiac | Pontiac Solstice GXP | Rd. 1 |
Rd. 2 |
Rd. 3 |
Rd. 4 |
Rd. 5 |
Rd. 6 |
Rd. 7 |
4 | 478.00 |
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Samuel Hübinette |
Formula D Champion 2005 |
Succeeded by Samuel Hübinette |
