Rhys Millen launched off the starting line at the 99th Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with the authority you’d expect from the 750-horsepower Bentley GT3 Pikes Peak, a gorgeous, meticulously crafted car with Super Glue-like downforce, and rocketed up the mountain, trouncing the other Time Attack 1 entries through the first and second measured time sectors.
Then boom.
Literally, boom. The intake manifold developed a crack, the boost went south as Millen was going north, and the best he could do was second in class to the fastest man ever up the mountain, Romain Dumas, who wasn’t going for outright speed this time but, like Millen, a Time Attack 1 victory in his 2019 Porsche 911 GT2RS Clubsport. Dumas ran 6 minutes, 31.914 seconds to a limping Millen’s 6:36.281 and fourth overall.
There’s no question had Millen’s steed not given up on him, Bentley would have had another class win, and may have even frightened Robin Shute, the Unlimited and overall winner in his purpose-built 2018 Wolf GB08 TSC-LT, whose time was 5:55.246, repeating his 2019 victory.
“But that’s Pikes Peak,” Millen told Autoweek. “Everything was going according to plan. We were quietly confident based on our practice time and the fact that we had to qualify in the rain – the car was flawless up to the third sector.”
The car belongs to a customer back in England, said Paul Williams, Director of Motorsport. It will be returned to GT3 livery and he’ll race it on tracks in Europe. The Bentley ran on renewable fuel, and, with its fourth-place overall finish, beat all the electric cars in the race.
As you likely know, no one was able to run for a record – the top four miles were sheet ice, and consequently – for only the third time in modern history – the course was shortened for the entire event, and for all 54 cars on the entry list. Fifty-one of them set times.
Millen, 48, first put his name into the Pikes Peak record books in 1997 when he won his class in a Toyota Supra. He’s a two-time King of the Mountain, designating an overall victory – first in 2012 in a Hyundai Genesis, then in 2015 in the electric Drive eO PPO3. His father Rod Millen has four back-to-back King titles in Toyota from 1996-1999.
Millen says that he’s logged so many miles on the mountain that he doesn’t need to brush up each year on the turns – “They just come back to me. My experience in rallying helps me with that.”
The road is, of course, all paved now – does Millen wish it still had some gravel sections? “I wish it was still all dirt!” he said. “It was 100 times more fun.” It’s much easier now for inexperienced drivers to come up to speed than it was on dirt, “when you had to make sure you had three feet available on either side if you overshot, or if there was moisture or debris on the track.” The fast line then was on the right, because “thousands of spectators had driven up the mountain on the right side of the road, and the dirt was packed down there.”
Plans are already underway for next year, the 100th running – “It should have a lot of fascinating historical elements, as well as a lot of teams going for new records,” Millen said. Motorcycles, banned several years ago, may also return.
Millen said he’ll definitely be back, very likely with Bentley. Though it’s too early to make any announcements, said one Bentley executive: “You could say Bentley has some unfinished business on the mountain.”
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Rhys Millen Leaves Pikes Peak With 'Unfinished Business' Behind Him - Autoweek
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