Rhys Millen

With over 16 years racing experience Rhys Millen has carved out a solid career and reputation becoming one of the most sought after performance drivers in the gigantic US automotive scene.Rhys Millen, born in New Zealand in 1972 is the son of famed rally and offroad racer Rod Millen. Rhys joined Rod in the US as a teenager and founded Rhys Millen Racing at the age of 21. RMR ( Rhys Millen Racing) is an automotive tuning and parts shop these days concentrating on rally, drift and movie car preparation.Rhys developed his legendary car control skills through various outlets including drifting a modified Toyota Supra to a new class world record up the Worlds toughest hillclimb, the famous Pikes Peak International Hillclimb back in 1998. This was noted by several manufacturers and Mitsubishi USA developed a relationship which resulted in RMR preparing and running there factory team program in the US Pro Rally Championship. Rhys went on to set class records three years in a row at Pikes Peak with the potent Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.In 2003 the new sport of drifting hit US soil. A sport breed in Japan some fifteen years ago, based on “Judged " car control with high speed ( 100+ mph ) precision slides nose to tail with your competitor. This was a natural transition for Rhys, taking home top honors in 2003 drift showoff. 2004 marked the first year a fully sanctioned drift series was to be run in the US. Rhys had the foresight to pitch a program to the World’s biggest automotive manufacturer, General Motors and quickly signed up to become the Worlds first factory paid drift driver choosing the Pontiac GTO (Holden Monaro) from the GM stable. During the GTO’s development season Rhys quickly established himself as a top player winning round four of the series. Not to be over looked was Rhys’s results at the 2004 Japan vs. USA drift event held at California Speedway. Marking the first time a non Japanese competitor had stood on the podium - with a third place finish.In 2005 Rhys Millen continued development of the GTO experimenting with subtle speedway style aerodynamic aids assisting with the cars handling at high speed. The mix of experience, talent and creativity culminated in Rhys dominating his way to the 2005 Formula Drift championship crown.This year 2006, Rhys continued to raise the level of competition in the Formula Drift championship with podiums at 5 out of 7 races. After a devastating axle failure at round 6 in New Jersey, he was forced to give up the lead in the championship finishing in 2nd Place. Rhys also began to prepare the next generation of Pontiac drift car, the Solstice GXP. The new car would be debuted in competition at the D1 Finale in December of 2006. With the new light weight, nimble chassis of the Solstice the combination of a solid platform and Rhys’ skills Behind the wheel the 2007 season proved to be another successful year with two podiums and a 4th place finish in the championship for team Pontiac Red Bull. In Addition to Formula Drift, Team RMR went back to routes setting a new world record with the solstice at Pikes Peak in the 2wd time attack division.Aside from the busy weekend schedule of events Rhys spends most of his 5 to 9 time again behind the wheel precision/stunt driving for countless automotive car commercials. Of late Rhys has made the transition into Hollywood being awarded the role of lead stunt driver of the General Lee in the recently released “Dukes of Hazard” movie. His performance landed him the role of lead stunt driver and stunt team drift coordinator in the June 06/16 release of “Fast and Furious 3, Tokyo Drift” movie. In addition to these movies Rhys’ work behind the wheel can be viewed in the movies Herbie Fully, “Redline” displaying dynamic control in cars line the Ferrari Enzo and Porsche GT and most recently “Indiana Jones Four”. Rhys Has also been offered the lead driving role doubling James Bond In the next “Bond 22” movie drifting the Aston Martin in the swiss alps of northern Italy.2008 for Rhys Millen looks to be a busy year with several pending commercial and movie projects, a busy business to run at RMR, the potential for a two car Formula Drift championship team and a new drive behind the wheel of a $500K 700+hp Trophy Truck in the SCORE Off Road Championship with Roger Norman Racing.