Injured Driver Steve Millen Is Fast Healer, Too : Versatile New Zealander Set to Race at Phoenix, 42 Days After Miami Accident

When Steve Millen had the first serious accident of his racing career on March 1, he had the good fortune to have Ron Hemelgarn as one of his car owners.

Millen, a New Zealander living in Irvine, drives anything on wheels--from trucks to sports sedans to Indy cars--and last year his versatility earned him a spot on the racing writers’ All-American team.

Early this season, however, with a ride in the Indianapolis 500 in one of Hemelgarn’s cars a distinct possibility, Millen’s left thigh was broken and six ribs were cracked in a first-lap accident during the Miami IMSA Grand Prix. A similar accident last year sidelined Josele Garza, the young Mexican driver, for six races.

Just six weeks since his accident, Millen expects to drive again Sunday in the American Racing Series 100 at Phoenix International Raceway. The ARS race is a side attraction to the Checkers 200 Indy car race.

Driving in the first oval race of his career, Millen won last year’s ARS race here. The ARS series is designed to prepare drivers for the slightly larger and more powerful Indy cars.

“Winning at Phoenix was the highlight of my career,” said the 37-year-old driver who began racing go-karts when he was 9.

And now, only 42 days since Millen bounced off a tire wall at Miami into the path of Scott Pruett’s Mustang, he’ll go again.

“I was lucky that I was driving for Ron Hemelgarn in the ARS and Indy,” Millen said Friday as he walked gingerly down pit row with the help of a cane.

Hemelgarn owns Living Well Fitness Centers, one of the world’s largest chains of exercise centers and his racing operation is called America’s Fitness Team. Among the staples in his gyms are stationary bicycles that can be programmed to varying degrees of resistance.

“I was in the hospital in Miami for a week before I went home to Irvine,” Millen said. “When I got home, I called Ron and told him I could use one of his Lifecycles. I thought I might get it in a week or two, but two hours after I called, it was delivered to my house.

“The biggest help in riding the cycle is not strengthening my leg, although that is important, but in building back my cardiovascular system,” he said. “I lost a lot of blood and developed pleurisy and that just flattened my battery.

“It took a lot of recharging to get ready for Phoenix, but now that I’m here, getting in a race car is the best therapy there is.”

Millen drove 60 laps on the fast mile oval Wednesday in Hemelgarn’s Buick-powered Wildcat. Friday, in the first official practice session, he lapped the track in 26.1 seconds--faster than his second-position qualifying speed last year.

“I had no problem moving the leg up and down when I needed to shift, but I couldn’t control the leg’s lateral movement,” he said. “When I was in a corner, and Phoenix seems like one long corner that lasts forever, my left leg would fall over on my right and I couldn’t move it back.”

Crew chief Graham Donaldson, like McMillen a native of New Zealand, built a bracket to hold Millen’s leg in place for today’s qualifying and Sunday’s race.

“The only time I use the left leg is when I shift getting out of the pits, so it’s no bother being held in one position. I’m just lucky it wasn’t the right leg.”

For a driver who walks with a cane and gets around the race track on an ATV three-wheeler, Millen has an ambitious program ahead.

“Naturally, I would like very much to win Phoenix again, but realistically I know I’m not as fit as I was before the accident. I just want to run strong enough to get some points. I really want to win the championship this year.”

Millen, after winning the 1986 Phoenix opener while driving for Jim Trueman’s Truesports team, was left without a ride when Trueman died in June and the team was disbanded.

He was the points leader at the time but missed two races before returning to win in a borrowed car at Mid-Ohio. He missed two more races before joining Hemelgarn’s team, yet still finished fourth in the series.

“A week after the race here I will be at Indianapolis for my rookie orientation,” he said. “This will be a learning year for me, but every mile I can get on the Speedway will be very important in my future.”

Hemelgarn has entered cars for three drivers in the 500--Arie Luyendyk; Rich Vogler, who drove for him at Indy last year; and Millen.

“My status will be a wait-and-see thing until I complete the four days of rookie orientation,” Millen said.

First, though, Millen will drive a new Toyota pickup--with an automatic shift--in Mickey Thompson’s Off-Road Gran Prix May 2 in the Rose Bowl.

“It was terribly disappointing to me to miss two stadium races (at Indianapolis and Detroit) after my accident,” he said. “I won the championship last year and was leading this year.

“It’s still three weeks down the road and I’ll be much more fit by then. I’ve got some catching up to do.”

Millen won the Thompson stadium opener this season at Anaheim and finished second to Glenn Harris at San Diego.

A busy schedule of jumping from one type of equipment to another is nothing new to Millen. During one week last year, he tested a truck in the desert near Las Vegas on Thursday and Friday, drove in an IMSA race at Riverside on Saturday and Sunday, and flew to Milwaukee Sunday night to test on the oval track there Monday and Tuesday.

“Driving all the different kinds of vehicles helps me a lot more than it hinders me,” he said. “I find a definite correlation between skills I learn in one form of racing and ones needed in other forms.”

With his wife, Jackie, helping him climb into his ARS car, Millen straightened up, smiled and said, “I’m just tickled pink to be here right now.”

Crew chief Donaldson cautiously placed his driver’s left leg--with its 30-millimeter steel rod from hip to knee--in its compartment and Millen rolled down pit lane to the track.