Steve Millen

The Nissan 300ZX with the number 75 at the 1994 Le Mans 24-hour race

Steve Millen (born February 17, 1953 in Auckland ) is a former New Zealand racing driver .

Racing career

Steve Millen started his mountain racing career in New Zealand. After initial successes in this form of motorsport, he switched to the circuit in 1969. He first started in Formula Ford and drove repeatedly in selected Formula 3 races until the early 1980s . In 1975 he finished third at the Macau Grand Prix on a Chevron B20 behind John MacDonald and Kevin Bartlett . His best monoposto results were wins in the Formula 3 races at the Shah Alam Circuit in 1978 and 1980-

In addition to his outings on the circuit, Millen established himself as a rally driver in the 1980s . His national successes led to a Toyota works outing at the Olympus rally in 1986 . His teammates were Björn Waldegård and Lars-Erik Torph , his co-driver Hans Thorszelius . After an accident, he had to give up the rally early.

Steve Millen was one of the most successful drivers in the IMSA GT series . His emergency vehicle, a Nissan 300ZX Turbo with starting number 75, was legendary. Between his debut at the Riverside 6 Hours in 1984 and the end of his driving career when the 1995 racing season ended, he achieved 17 overall and 4 class wins. His 19 pole positions were an IMSA record. 1994 he won together with Paul Gentilozzi , Butch Leitzinger and Scott Pruett , the 24 Hours of Daytona and in the same year with John Morton and Johnny O'Connell and the 12-hour race at Sebring . His many individual victories resulted in the championship in the GTS class in 1992 and 1994 .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1990	Nissan Performance Technology Inc.	Nissan R90CK	Michael Roe	Bob Earl	Rank 17
1994	Clayton Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	Johnny O'Connell	John Morton	5th place and class win

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1985	Dingman Brothers Racing	Pontiac Firebird	Walt Drilling	Billy Dingman	failure	Engine failure
1989	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	John Morton		failure	Valve damage
1991	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	Jeremy Dale	Johnny O'Connell	Rank 11
1992	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	John Morton	Johnny O'Connell	failure	Engine failure
1993	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	John Morton	Johnny O'Connell	4th place and class win
1994	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	John Morton	Johnny O'Connell	Overall victory
1995	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	John Morton	Johnny O'Connell	5th place and class win

literature

• Ken Breslauer: Sebring. The official History of America's Great Sports Car Race. David Bull, Cambridge MA 1995, ISBN 0-9649722-0-4 .
• Peter Higham: The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. A complete Reference from Formula 1 to Touring Car. Guinness Publishing Ltd., London 1995, ISBN 0-85112-642-1 .
• JA Martin and Ken Welles: Prototypes - the History of the IMSA GTP Series . Bull Publishing, Phoenix 2000, ISBN 1-893618-01-3 .

Web links

Commons : Steve Millen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Steve Millen at Racing Sports Cars
• Steve Millen at the Driver Database
• Steve Millen at EWRC-Results

Individual evidence

1. ^ Macau Grand Prix 1975
2. ↑ Selangor Grand Prix 1978
3. ↑ Malaysian Grand Prix 1980
4. ↑ IMSA GT Championship 1992
5. ↑ IMSA GT Championship 1994