Millen’s Racing Career Is Right on Schedule

Please excuse off-road racer Steve Millen of Irvine if he appears to be in a hurry these days.

Millen’s racing career is in fifth gear as he contends for the mini-pickup truck championship of Mickey Thompson’s Off-Road Championship Gran Prix series and the American Racing Series’ open-wheel championship.

Millen, driving a factory-prepared Toyota, has won four of the six events in Thompson’s series and will be the favorite Saturday night when racing resumes in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

He is tied for first place in the ARS series for V-6 powered Buicks with Fabrizio Barbazza of Italy after three races.

“The only problem I have racing in both series is when the races clash,” Millen said. “I thought I was going to have a conflict this weekend, but the race in Toronto was canceled, so I can concentrate 100% on the Coliseum race.”

Millen, 36, was a veteran driver of Formula Atlantic and pro rally racing until he turned to off-road racing four years ago. He had earned a winning reputation in pro rallies in New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.

He has developed into one of off-road racing’s premier drivers and continues to be successful despite a hectic racing schedule.

“Only a month ago, I tested a truck in the desert on Thursday and Friday, drove in an IMSA race at Riverside on Saturday and Sunday, and then took a midnight flight on Sunday to Milwaukee to do some testing on an oval track on Monday and Tuesday,” he said.

“I think it’s good for me to race as much as I can. The more racing, the more miles I put on the track, the better off I am. I play a lot of racquetball to keep physically fit, so I don’t see a problem with my schedule.”

Millen will get a supreme test on the weekend of Aug. 15-17. He plans to qualify and race in the ARS series at Pocono, Pa. Aug. 16, and then catch an overnight flight to California where he will race his Toyota truck in the Nissan Mini Metal Challenge of the SCORE Off-Road World Championship at Riverside Aug. 17.

Millen will debut a new Toyota at Riverside and predicts the new vehicles will be the fastest in the class. Teammate Ivan Stewart has won the race the past three years.

“I’ve been driving the same truck for three years, and it’s time to move on,” Millen said. “We’ve just about ‘maxed out’ on the development of the truck.”

Technical innovations and development constantly change off-road racing. Roger Mears plans to introduce a new Nissan hard-body truck at the Coliseum. But Millen doesn’t have to worry about the competition in the ARS series.

The drivers compete in identically prepared Buicks that are developed by the same manufacturer. It comes down to a race of driver skill.

“The engines are exactly the same,” Millen said. “I enjoy the ARS series because it’s driver against driver. I’ve found that I bring some of the things I’ve learned in open-wheel racing into off-road like passing and chassis setup.

“But everything is different in open-wheel racing from the movement of the gear lever to the position I sit in the seat.

“Off-road racing is a very aggressive sport. The racing strategy is so different. You can’t take smooth racing lines. The track is constantly changing through the course of a race.”

It sounds like a description of Millen’s racing schedule.

Off-Road Notes

Gates open at 5:30 with a driver autograph session scheduled from 6-7 near the peristyle-end of the Coliseum. The first heat race is scheduled for 7:30 with nine classes of off-road vehicles in competition. . . . Promoter Mickey Thompson will also feature a companion, 250cc motocross utilizing the reverse direction of the main race course. There will be three motos--two heat races and a main event. Shaun Kalos, 15, of Litchfield Park, Ariz., will be the youngest motocross rider. He entered the professional class of motocross at 13, but has been unable to compete in American Motorcycle Assn. sanctioned events that require riders to be at least 16.