Leadfoot Festival: Millen wins on his hillclimb driveway

Rod Millen's Pikes Peak-winning Celica was true to form at the Leadfoot Festival. Photo / Alastair Ritchie

Rod Millen is still the fastest man up his driveway.

The Kiwi motorsport legend set the quickest time over the weekend at the Leadfoot Festival, a unique new hillclimb event at his idyllic Hahei property.

But it nearly came unstuck for the Top Ten Shootout yesterday afternoon when Millen missed a shift at the bottom of his 1.6km purpose-built driveway. The property has become home to MIllen's vision of New Zealand's version of the iconic Goodwood Festival of Speed.

"I knew had a good second up my sleeve," said the 61-year-old driver, who was driving the 900 horsepower Toyota Celica that impressively held the overall record for at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb for 13 years.

He was up against vehicles like the ex-Possum Bourne WRC Impreza in tarmac trim and driven by Emma Gilmour; multi-Targa winner Tony Quinn's GTR and even a Formula One car, the ex-Denny Hulme McLaren M25 of Phil Mauger. And all times were reset for the competition.

"The Celica is an 18-year-old car on 14-year-old tyres," he said. "When I missed a shift at the bottom I thought I might be in trouble. So I pushed it hard for the rest of the run."

That strategy worked, and he despatched the course in just 51.50 - closely followed by SuperQuad maniac Ian Ffitch 53.31 and Steve Murphy, who managed 53.56 in his 650hp, V8-powered Mitsubishi Cordia.

But the Shootout was just icing on the cake for the spectators at the three-day event.

The event's purpose is more to showcase the more than 100 vehicles, ranging from incredibly rare vintage bikes and racers through to fire-breathing hillclimbers, rally cars and even a McLaren F1 car.

Millen drove his Celica, Tundra race truck and a restored RX3; Clark Proctor raced his 1973 March 73A and his 1973 Targa Escort; Paul Sundberg drove a Ferrari F40 and a 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C Monza; visiting luminary Juan Fangio Jnr will be driving a 1958 F/J Fiat. One of the real surprises of the weekend was the immensely crowd-pleasing Ann Thomson in her 14-litre 1906 Durroq - who was fittingly awarded for an impressive performance in the challenging machine.

For more on the Leadfoot Festival see next Saturday's issue of Driven.