BFGoodrich Tires | Ask the Experts

Rod Millen: The King of the Hill Takes Goodwood
September 30, 2002

What was it like for Rod Millen, the undefeated record-holder of the Pikes Peak hill climb, to run an eight-year-old Toyota Celica in the hillclimb at the estate of Lord March, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and drive -- and win -- against a field of Formula One cars?

A thrill, that's what. But listen to it in Millen's words; he chooses them carefully:

"Because I've conquered Pikes Peak, and other hillcimbs that I've done around the world, driving and winning at Goodwood added up to perhaps one of the most exciting times I've ever had in motorsports."

Why? Because Goodwood is an event that gladdens the heart of true motorsports aficionados -- an invitation-only event, issued only to the international aristocracy of motorsports, by Lord and Lady March.

"I've followed the Goodwood Festival of Speed for the last five years, and the idea of driving in a truly 'gentleman's event' was very appealing."

Winning -- and not just winning, but blowing away the F1 competition -- was icing on an already rich cake. Because here's the thing: for its international entry at the world's most prestigious vintage race event, the Pikes Peak Toyota Celica was brought out of storage with no more than a shower and shave before being put on the track.

After one shakedown run at Willow Springs, to make sure all the systems were working, Rod says, "We dusted the cobwebs off it, put in a fresh tank of gas and put it in a container."

And this is the good part:

"We ran the event on the Pikes Peak tires -- dirt and gravel tires specially made for Pikes Peak by BFGoodrich®. Those tires are deeply grooved, to make them ideal for the dirt and gravel of the mountain in Colorado."

Not for the pristine asphalt surface of Lord March's driveway, on which the Goodwood Hillclimb takes place.

"We were giving up a bit in the tire department, running against F1 cars with racing slicks designed for pavement," Millen says. But don't look for proof of that in the lap times. The closest an F1 car came to the Toyota's winning time was 1.5 seconds -- an eternity in a hillclimb run.

And that was slow for Millen. "It rained at the event on Friday, which made the Toyota feel better," Millen says. "And I went 1.5 seconds quicker than my winning time in the dry on Saturday."

In an 8-year-old car on 5-year-old tires, designed for an entirely different type of race. "I've always competed on BFGoodrich® tires, throughout my whole career," Millen says, "because they've supported me in a wide range of venues, from hillclimbs to rallying to road racing. And their engineers have always responded to my input to design something that would give the car an advantage in the particular event I was driving."

For Pikes Peak, that called for a tire optimized for both dirt and gravel, on a track that is one of the world's most challenging surfaces, because of the extreme changes in weather that may occur during the event.

Millen remembers the day he set his unbroken record eight years ago. Did he know he was driving to an all-time high? No.

"The thing that stands out about it was that the conditions on that day were ideal for a fast time. Proof of that is that I've been back many times in effort to better my time, and never succeeded."

He doesn't have any immediate plans to try to retake Pikes Peak, though, for good reason. After all, he owns the record, and the only person he would be competing against is himself -- an 8-years-younger Rod Millen.

"Normally at a race, you're driving against the other drivers. But there, I'd just be driving to equal or surpass or beat my own time, and there isn't that much motivation to do that."

Not that he doesn't enjoy the thrill of getting his foot down on a hillclimb course at age 51. "I knew from our acceleration times that we had a pretty good chance, on paper, of running and winning at Goodwood."

What are the acceleration times? Get ready:

The Pikes Peak Celica will rip off a 0-to-60 time which Rod thinks is mediocre: 2.4 seconds. But the 0-to-100 MPH time is 4.5 seconds! That's why he knew he had the beans to beat the F1 competition.

"The Toyota has 850 horsepower," Millen says. "That's healthy. But after a couple of runs, I was wishing for more power. It used to be the same way at Pikes Peak."

Rod's biggest pleasure in the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb victory was not so much the winning as it was the appreciation shown by the fans.

"Lord March has created a truly unique and wonderful motorsports event at Goodwood, which the fans appreciate enormously. They actually stand and applaud when you have driven past. And they applaud when you're on your way back down. They come up to you afterward, bring you copies of magazines and books you're in and ask you to autograph them. They truly appreciate the varied and rich quality of the cars that run at Goodwood."

So does Rod. "The wonderful thing about it was that, as opposed to most race events, like Pikes Peak, you're so busy and so pressed and so focused on your own event that you don't have time to enjoy or take in anybody else. At Goodwood, we had lunch, breakfast and dinner with great personalities from motor racing in different eras, and had a chance to see many of the great cars. And everybody enjoyed it all."

Is Rod hoping for anything, down the road? Yes. "Maybe Lord March will invite me back to come and race the Toyota hillclimb pickup. It's lighter and faster than the Celica."

In addition to its motorsports activities, the Rod Millen Group offers a range of performance parts for Japanese imports and specialty vehicles for the U.S. Military and others.

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