Millen & Fate Claim First Victory of the Season In Toyota RAV4 SE

Apr 29, 2016

Ryan Millen and Christina Fate drove their Toyota RAV4 to their first Rally America series victory this past weekend at the Trail Rally in Portland, Oregon. The duo outperformed all of the other 2WD competitors to not only claim the top spot in this race but to also land the RAV4 in the top five overall.

The first day of the event, Millen and Fate spent the day figuring out how to handle the course and the best way to approach all of the various obstacles along the way, which included debris created by the other vehicles in the race.

“The big open class boys were pulling out boulders,” remembered Millen. “There was no way to dodge them all. We bent a wheel, but overall in those rough terrain sections, the RAV was great. It has so much wheel travel; we don’t have to slow down as much as some of the other cars.”

Friday night ended with the team realizing they had a bit of mechanical trouble due to a failed shock, which was luckily easily repaired by crew chief Brian Hoeppner. With a fixed vehicle, the team headed into the Saturday round strong finishing the day in second place after gradually working their way up the ranks.

On the third day, they upped their game even more but briefly thought they were going to end up on the second place spot on the podium as they entered the final stage 13 seconds behind the lead car. However, they pulled ahead to end the day in first place a full 10 seconds ahead of the next car.

“RAV4 SE Wins Oregon Trail Rally | Toyota.” RAV4 SE Wins Oregon Trail Rally | Toyota. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2016. <http://pressroom.toyota.com/releases/rav4-se-oregon-rally-2016.htm>.