Father of overall Pikes Peak record-holder Rhys Millen thinks Toyota will be challenged in electric class
Rod Millen is coming to the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with one goal in mind -- setting the electric-vehicle record for the run up the mountain.Millen, the 61-year-old father of Pikes Peak record-holder Rhys Millen (09:46.164, set in 2012), will be driving an electric-powered TMG EV P002 from Toyota Motorsport GmbH.
The record for an electric car of 10:15.380 was set by Japan's Fumio Nutahara in a Toyota Motorsport TMG EVP002 in 2012.
The cars went through technical inspection and Monday, and the drivers are ready to go.
Here are some of Millen's thoughts heading into June 29-30 climb weekend, courtesy of Toyota Racing:
What do you enjoy about the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb?
Rod Millen: “I think what makes it unique and a little special for me is I started my motorsports career in New Zealand doing hill climbs and moved on to doing other forms of motorsports, but perhaps like a lot of things you do for the first time it's always a great memory. Over the course of the years, I had read about Pikes Peak as a young kid and perhaps being the ultimate hill climb and never did I ever realize that one day I would hold the overall record. You could sort of say it has a special place to me in my motorsports career.”
How did you get involved with the Toyota TMG EV P002 project?
RM: “My relationship with Toyota goes back all the way some 20 odd years ago I was driving for them in the Off Road Stadium Series and then moving not only to Pikes Peak but to touring cars and working with Toyota on designing some of their production cars -- so a working relationship that we had for a long time. When the opportunity to work with Toyota even last year with the electric car, the folks at TRD called me up and asked me if I could share some of my background knowledge and experience at Pikes Peak with the TMG (Toyota Motorsport GmbH) entry and so we worked with the team last year and after that TRD said, 'You know what, we'd like to up the ante a little bit and have a shot for ourselves.' So, in 2013 they called me up and said, 'We'd like to have you be the driver if you're up for that.' And I said, 'Yeah, sure. I'd love to be part of that program with you.'”
What has been your impression of the Toyota TMG EV P002 electric race car in testing?
RM: “It is very unique. Of course, it's only got one gear and it does have a lot of torque. It does have some limitations in terms of recharging and also the amount of stored energy, so we've been practicing at the mountain and you can't do multiple runs like some of the other guys can -- they can just come back down and top off with gas and go up and do another run. We need more time to charge the batteries. We aren't getting quite as many runs as some of the other gas-engine competitors, but it is definitely a unique powertrain. It has a lot of future opportunities -- I'm sort of saying it's also early days for this technology -- there's going be a lot to be gained out of refinements and maturity of the systems.”
Do you think an electric car can one day take the overall title at Pikes Peak?
RM: “I've thought for a long time that there's an opportunity, a possibility that an electric car could do well at Pikes Peak given the duration of the race -- approximately 10 minutes -- was quite feasible with an electric car. Having said that, we've experienced several unique challenges of running an internal combustion engine car at Pikes Peak where as you climb the mountain you tend to lose horsepower -- even with a turbocharged engine you're still losing horsepower -- so those issues not being apparent for an electric car, I've always thought that was great. When TRD (Toyota Racing Development) did call me and said, 'Would you like to be in the car?' I said, 'Absolutely.'”
What do you expect from the electric class competition?
RM: “The Mitsubishi team is very strong. They were a little quicker than us at the practice. We haven't run at full power yet, but they've certainly got our attention and our team is working until official practice starts to figure out if there's anything more we can gain in speed and performance and I'm sure there is, so it's exciting. It's very unique and different and keep in mind we're practicing in shorter sections early in the morning when the temperatures are much cooler than what they will be on race day. The thing that is unique and different about Pikes Peak is you only get one chance on race day to place a time with the one run from start to finish to the top of the mountain.”
Does your experience provide an advantage at Pikes Peak?
RM: “Having been down that road many times before -- we get a lot of information during practice and testing and we need to apply that to race day -- that whole strategy. Experience plays a big part as to the decisions you make and how you drive the vehicle.”
What is it like racing against your son, Rhys, at Pikes Peak?
RM: “The first time Rhys (Millen) and I competed at Pikes Peak in different classes -- which we are again this year -- was about 20 years ago, so it's been going on for a while. We share ideas and thoughts and we have a lot of chuckles over situations and instances that happen during practice and we each try to turn in a faster time, so it's been a really fun rivalry.”
Source: AutoWeek
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