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Raise Your Game: Why rallying?

Phil Mills: I think it started when I was a kid. There were a lot of rallies at the back of my house - road rallies and stage rallies. I think it got in the blood then. I knew from a very early age what I wanted to do. I started at club level and worked up to national level. Then I started venturing into Europe and obviously into the World Championship. Start at club level because that's the easiest way to do it.

RYG: Is it important for you to set yourself goals?

PM: Yes. I wanted to conquer road rallying and do well at that. I started doing the national series. I won the British Championship in 1997. Once I'd won that I didn't really have any interest in staying in the British Championship. That's when I moved onto the World Championship. We finally conquered that in 2003.

RYG: How important is preparation for a World Champion co-driver?

PM: Preparation is everything. If you're not prepared you're finished, and it's as simple as that. I always think that the actual day of the rally is the easy bit. Whatever you've done beforehand is where you can win or lose the rally. I can't go into a rally unless I'm prepared and you pay the price for it unless you are.

RYG: How do you prepare for a rally?

PM: You have to look at the rules and the regulations for each event. You have to get the pace notes ready. That's a big job - matching the bits of road up from previous years. You need to study your rule books and get all the timings correct. It can all get a bit obsessive. It has to be that way. There's no room for error so it's got to be right.

RYG: How important is teamwork in the world of rallying?

PM: It's everything. We can't do anything without the team. We can't do anything in the car without each other. It's the only form of motor sport where you need a co-driver so it's everything. Everything has to come together as a team. Some of the teams are disjointed and they're the ones that don't get results. It takes a long, long time to get a team to gel together. If you look at somebody like Sebastian Loeb, he's conquered the art of gelling a team together and that's why he's so successful. The magic word is teamwork.

RYG: As a co-driver, what sort of training do you have to do?

PM: We train every day. Drivers train their upper body a lot because they need upper body strength. Most of the guys have got triangular upper bodies. For co-drivers it's all about stamina.

In places like Greece, where it's 50 degrees inside the car and you're in there for three days, you don't want to be getting light headed. We do stamina training like long bike rides with lots of clothes on to keep the heat up. We also do an hour or so in the gym every day.

RYG: What sacrifices have you had to make to get you to this point in your career?

PM: Family life is destroyed. We do 220 to 230 days a year on the road. With a young family at home it's very difficult. I think that's the ultimate sacrifice. In the early years you're borrowing money and you can't get a mortgage because of your occupation.

You have to make massive sacrifices that people don't see. It's a very difficult business to start off in. The flip side of that is that you turn your hobby into a living. Plus, if you're successful at World Championship level, the rewards are quite good, but the risk is high as well. It's a case of big risk, big rewards.

RYG: What skills do you need to be a champion co-driver?

PM: Don't be car sick (laughs). I always see it as an office job. If you're a very organised person and you're a petrol head then it's the best job in the world. It's an office job inside a car. You've got to be organised and you've got to enjoy speed and cars.

RYG: How do you stay focused under pressure?

PM: When the stress comes on you've got to stay as calm as possible, otherwise that's transferred into the driver. Regardless of what's going on you've got to stay as cool as possible. Stay as cool as you can and that'll feed into the driver.

RYG: What have been the highlights of your career so far?

PM: There have been many. I think the first Rally GB win in 2002 was very special. In 2003 when we won the World Championship and the Welsh rally on the same day, obviously that's going to be the high spot. There have been dozens of high points along the way, some bad things as well, but winning the World Championship was the ultimate dream.

RYG: And the lows?

PM: There have been a few lows. We had a very bad accident in 2004 which we shouldn't really have walked away from. That took a bit of thinking about. I also lost my friend, Michael Park, who was co-driving here in 2005. That was about as low as it gets.

RYG: How do you move on from those low points?

PM: If you have a big off that's fine. It's a high risk sport. You just have to accept that and get on with it.

RYG: What motivates you to keep going in the sport?

PM: I would like to win the World Championship one more time and put that to bed. It'd be nice to prove it wasn't a fluke the first time. To be a double World Champion would be special. It's not that important if it doesn't happen because I've already achieved it. I'm in the twilight of my career and want to win as many events as I can.

I have a deep passion for the sport. Passion drives a lot of people on. In the early years, when you haven't got any money, it has to come down to passion, otherwise you wouldn't go to the lengths that you do to stay in the sport. Everybody that's in the sport at this level has got an obsessive passion for it. It's not just a job.

RYG: What advice would you give to someone wanting to make it to the top of the rallying world?

PM: Start out doing club rallies and progress from there. If you want to do it I believe that you will. Even if you want to be in the World Championship I believe that you will if you're determined enough. A lot of people drop out before they make it. Obviously finance is a big problem. When I started out I didn't have any financial backing at all, but I still believe that if you want to do it enough you will. Just believe in yourself.