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ABOUT PHIL MILLS
Phil Mills is no stranger to success at the highest level, but it was his move to the Subaru World Rally Team in August 2000, along with Petter Solberg, which established the Welshman’s role in one of the most dynamic driver partnerships in the World Rally Championship. After numerous promising results their potential was realised in 2003, when a second consecutive Rally GB victory secured Petter and Phil the Drivers' and Co-Drivers' world championship titles.
Back To Basics
Twenty years before Phil clinched his first world championship, he embarked on his co-driving career from an entirely different perspective: in the lanes around his Welsh home. He competed regularly on road rallies and success wasn’t long in coming. After only one season in the sport he won his first class title in the Welsh Road Rally Championship. Mills competed at club level for the remainder of the 1980s, building his experience on events across the country. Between 1988 and 1990 he found himself increasingly busy – tackling 88 rallies in two years.
Going International
The back end of the 1980s was clearly time well spent, as his international break came in the 1990 British Rally Championship when he co-drove for Graham Middleton in the Group N category. The highlight of the year came on Mills’ home international: the Welsh Rally, where he finished third overall. Mills switched roles for the 1993 RAC Rally, working as co-ordinator for the Malcolm Wilson Motorsport. The Cumbrian firm was running Mohammed Bin Sulayem and it was alongside the multiple Middle East champion that Phil gained his first international victory, on the 1994 Rally of Jordan.
British Championship Success
Despite his co-ordinating work, Phil’s passion was for co-driving. When he joined Mark Higgins at Nissan in 1996, the pair were thrown into one of the most intensely competitive British Rally Championships for a number of years. They finished second in their first season – and then managed fourth overall on the RAC Rally. Twelve months later and the duo were celebrating their first international title as British champions. Phil continued to work at Malcolm Wilson Motorsport – now known as M-Sport – and made his World Rally Championship debut in a World Rally Car alongside Armin Schwarz in Corsica.
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