Formula DRIFT Championship Will Come Down to Final Event of the Season

COSTA MESA, Calif., Aug. 31, 2012 – The Hyundai Genesis Coupe piloted by Rhys Millen may be the most successful car ever created for sports car competition.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, with the glimmering lights of the Las Vegas Strip serving as an almost surreal backdrop, Millen and his Genesis Coupe accomplished a one-two punch the likes of which the motorsports world has never seen before. First, the world record of 9 minutes, 46.16 seconds and the Time Attack win at the acclaimed Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, beating Romain Dumas in a Porsche 911. Dumas was the 2010 winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Then, just 14 days later starting last Saturday in the 105-degree Las Vegas heat and into the early-morning hours of Sunday, there was a victory at the Formula DRIFT event appropriately titled “After Dark.” Millen and his drift-prepared Hyundai Genesis Coupe showed 63 other competitors in the Formula DRIFT series, including points leader Vaughn Gittin Jr. in his Ford Mustang, just what he could do behind the wheel of the Genesis Coupe.

What is truly remarkable is Millen piloted the same Hyundai Genesis Coupe in both events. No racer or race car, anywhere, has ever accomplished victories in such diverse events as Millen and Genesis Coupe has in such a short period of time, proving that Millen, one of the world's top stunt car drivers, is also one of its most talented racers no matter the altitude, time of day, number of competitors or number of turns on the course. It also proves the Genesis Coupe's versatility in winning two very different motorsports events as well. Race cars like Millen’s Hyundai Genesis Coupe wind up in museums.

Millen and his Genesis Coupe are now in third place in the Formula DRIFT overall points standings, leading into the final event of the season on October 12-13 at Irwindale Speedway in California. Millen has a chance capture his second Formula DRIFT title at Irwindale. The world-record-setting Genesis Coupe is the same car that set the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Time Attack 2WD record with Rhys’ father, Rod Millen, at the wheel and won the Formula DRIFT Round 6: After Dark last year.

“It was an incredible victory for our entire crew and for the Hyundai Genesis Coupe. To come here from Pikes Peak in the same car in a different configuration and in a different driving style and to do it back to back was quite a challenge,” said Millen. “Las Vegas has a truly diverse course that suited the car well and we were flawless all day long.”

Courtesy of Hyundai