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Exclusive Interview
with Top British Co-driver
Simon Mills
 Simon,
a Welshman living in England, will be co-driving for Callum Munro
in the Scottish Rally Championship in 2005 |
| Personal | |
| Name: | Simon Mills |
| Age: | 36 |
| Marital status: | Single |
| Children: | Vicki, Philippa and Lucy |
| Occupation: | Systems engineer |
| Place of birth: | Llandrindod Wells, Wales |
| Country or county where you live: | Lancashire, England |
| Does your spouse / partner like rallying? | Definitely, she marshals on all SRC rounds and the Snowman Rally 2005 will be/was her first event as a co-driver |
| Any other hobbies? | Skiing (badly), play guitar (badly), cycling |
| Your opinions | |
| Favourite food: | Sausage and mash |
| Favourite drink: | Guinness |
| Favourite motor sport paper / magazine: | Motorsport News |
| Favourite sports person (other than rallying): | After last Saturday’s performance, Gavin Henson (Welsh Rugby Union star) |
| Favourite film star: | Samuel L. Jackson |
| Favourite holiday destination: | Anywhere to go skiing |
| Which TV sports programmes do you watch? | Any rally programmes and 6 Nations rugby – come on Wales!! |
| Starting out | |
| How did you start out? | Started by helping a mate fix his car which led to me servicing on events. Never had any thoughts of competing myself until one of my mates was short of a nav for an event |
| First driver you sat with: | Dave Harris |
| First event: | First
event was the ’99 Leukaemia Historic road rally.
First stage event was the Tour of Mull in the same year – talk about in at the deep end!! |
| Rallying background | |
| Type of licence held: | International |
| Which motor club do you belong to? | Highland Car Club and RAFMSA |
| Do you contribute towards your rallying? | Occasionally |
| Have you ever driven on a rally? | No. Fancy having a go, but I know which side of the car my skills are best suited to. |
| Did you ever marshal on events? When and where? | Managed to work on 2 events last year, Milltown Stages and the Fat Albert Stages |
| How many events do you get to watch? (e.g. per year) | 1 in 2004 |
| How many rallies do you take part in? (e.g. per year) | 18 in 2004 |
| Have you competed abroad? Where and when? | Competed on the Ypres Retro Historic Road Rally for the last 2 years, also competed in Germany a few years ago. |
| Your opinions (rallying) | |
| Favourite rally car: | 6R4 |
| Favourite rally driver: | Colin McRae |
| Favourite rally co-driver: | Luis Moya – I’ve no idea what he was saying, but his delivery was brilliant |
| Favourite bit of road or forest: | Glen Aros, Isle of Mull |
| Do you prefer pace notes or map reading events? | Because of when I started competing, the majority of the events have been on pace notes. I thoroughly enjoy reading a road off a map, although much more difficult than reading notes, and take every opportunity to get more practice. That said, the results are always going to be better when using a good set of notes. |
| Things you dislike about rallying? | The cost, which I think prevents us seeing the true ability of many of our competitors |
| Who do you think will win the World Rally Championship in 2005? | Would like to see Solberg win it, not least so that a Welshman named Mills has the co-driver's title |
| Rallying history | |
| Drivers you have sat with: | Callum Munro, Barry Horan, Glen Farley, Dave Harris, Martyn Astley, Katy Wastling, Mark Sanderson, Allan Mackay, Matt Mitchell, Roger Donnan, Ellya Gold, Matt Doncaster, Andy Smith, Kris Tennant |
| Best driver you have ever sat with? | Dave Harris |
| Best result: | 2nd Overall, Ypres Retro 2004 |
| Worst result: | Any non finish |
| Championships contested: | Scottish Champs, 205 Challenge |
| Best Championship result: | 1st Class 5 co-driver, SRC 2003 |
| Best rally memory: | Finishing my first Mull |
| Strangest incident on a rally: | Holing the sump on my girlfriend's 4-year-old Audi whilst taking part in a Highland Car Club road rally near Brora and being asked “Where the **** is that?” when trying to get recovered. PS. She was driving!!! |
| Biggest accident: | N/A |
| Achievements gained from rallying: | Loads of very good friends |
| Your current performance | |
| Your current driver(s) and events or Championships contested in 2004 | Callum
Munro – Scottish Rally Champs
Glen Farley – 205 Challenge |
| And plans for 2005? | SRC again with Callum, and another championship TBA |
| How could you improve your ‘own’ current performance? | Get fitter and spend more time in the car |
| How could you improve your current driver’s performance? | Find a way of waking him up in the morning so that we are on the pace from the off |
| If you had £50,000 to spend on rallying, what would you do? | Trying to get myself involved at a higher level of competition. £50,000 is not a lot of money in this sport and it frustrates me that co-drivers are denied the chance to prove themselves in many good seats as the drivers are forced to take the guy with the biggest wallet and not necessarily the most ability. |
| Your future in rallying | |
| Where would you most like to compete (in the world): | Finland |
| Which rally would you most like to compete in? | Monte Carlo |
| Which driver(s) would you most like to co-drive for? | Marcus Gronholm |
| Ambition in rallying for the future: | I would like to contest a full BRC season in a competitive team – any takers?? |
| What would you like to put back into rallying? | I’d like to see more emphasis on encouraging young co-drivers. Any schemes that come along seem to focus on developing drivers, so I’d like to see similar development opportunities for the co-drivers |
| The future of rallying | |
| Which up-and-coming rally driver can you recommend? | Colin Main |
| Which up-and-coming rally co-driver can you recommend? | Me |
| What would be the best tip you could give to other co-drivers? | Be organised. Time spent planning before an event makes a huge difference to your workload, meaning more time to concentrate on what’s important during the event |
| Published 25/2/05 | |
| Return to Top Co-drivers for even more exclusive interviews |
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