The Big Interview: Rally driver Jonny Milner (From York Press)

The Big Interview: Rally driver Jonny Milner

8:43am Wednesday 10th February 2010 in

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IT’S an old sporting cliché that demands you should never go back. And, when the opportunity rose to buy the car he won two British Rally Championship titles in, Jonny Milner found it a temptation too difficult to resist. After a seven-year separation – some might call it an itch – Pocklington-based Milner has been reunited with the 1999 Toyota Corolla that earned him back-to-back crowns.

Now, the 2002 and 2003 British champion believes both he and the car can roll back the years to win the first national title of the new decade.

Since man and machine went their separate ways, Milner has been concentrating on expanding his Merlin International tyre-selling business.

The Corolla, meanwhile, has led a nomadic existence, stopping off in Holland and Ireland before coming back home to Yorkshire, albeit looking a little unfamiliar.

However, having been sprayed black, Milner wasted little time in restoring the car to the red colours in which he enjoyed so much success.

Taking up the story, the 1992 Top Gear Junior British Rally champion said: “My sponsor sold the car in 2003 to Eric Weavers in Holland and he won the Dutch Championship with it in 2004 but I was looking for Corollas on a website where people put rally cars up for sale and it came up in a different colour and country. The price was just way too expensive but another driver Derek McGarrity, from Belfast, bought it.

“He usually races cars for two or three rallies and then sells them on. The chance came up to buy it at the right price and it’s been a buzz having the car back.

“It’s now as good a spec as we could want. It’s got an automatic Formula 1 gearbox and a more powerful engine and, even though it’s an old car, it’s as good as you can get a Corolla.

“It will be very competitive in the National Championships. In fact, even though it’s ten-years-old, it would not disgrace itself in the World Championships either although cars have obviously developed so much in terms of weight distribution.”

While the Corolla might have a few more miles on the clock, Milner, himself, will be making his racing comeback in the MSA National Gravel Rally Championship at a middle-aged 41.

With seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher also due to make his return to Formula 1 next month after a four-year sabbatical, though, the Huggate driver believes age is no barrier in motor sport.

“I’ve had 20 years in motor sport and, as each year goes by, you learn more and more in terms of car preparation,” he pointed out. “You’re only as old as you feel.

“Michael Schumacher is six months older than me. Stig Blomqvist is also well into his 60s and still topping the time sheets.

“It doesn’t matter to them how much money they are earning. Like me, they still have the hunger for driving fast and winning races.”

Milner has hardly been lying idle since taking a break from the national stage either.

In 2007, he tied for top spot in the Mitsubishi Challenge, only missing out on a drive with Mitsubishi UK due to the title being decided on results from the first stage.

Last year, he went on to win the Toyota Sprint Series, picking up five clients on the way, who have commissioned Milner to upgrade their vehicles.

“I never really left the sport,” he explained. “It was just an issue of work having to come first and motor sport second, unfortunately.

“They also modified the British Championships to prevent the big World Rally Championship cars being used. Now, you can race them in the National Championship however.”

In Milner’s absence, Poole-based Marcus Dodd has won five national titles, including the last three, but the East Yorkshire ace believes that he can break that domination with the assistance of Northallerton navigator Ian Windress.

He said: “We were British champions many years ago and I think we will be in with a shout again. We will be going directly up against Marcus and it will be nice to try to knock him off his perch.

“We came together in 2002 and beat him but he’s a well-respected driver and you can’t take his titles away from him. He knows what he’s doing.”

Milner is taking the challenge to unseat Dodd seriously and has lost 10lbs in weight since just before Christmas by swimming half-an-hour, five times a week to increase his stamina and resistance to fatigue.

Sunday’s Riponian test rally will now see Milner make his return to national competition on home turf before the drivers head off for the south coast a fortnight later.

“I can’t wait to get going,” he enthused. “I’m hoping the snow holds off because the Riponian will be the first time I’ve turned a wheel in anger since we got the car back.

“It’s a test event and we will be looking to increase our speed during the day and then we’ll know where we are going to Bournemouth. You can’t discount the narrow, challenging stages of the Riponian though.

“In Dalby, you can take the car quite wide but you have to respect some of the stages on the southern bank as they can take your wheel off.”