NEWS / MILNER BRINGS TOUCH OF NOSTALGIA TO EAST RIDING STAGES
07/01/2025Double BRC Champ Jonny Milner will be bringing a touch of nostalgia to Yorkshire at The East Riding Stages
Rally fans will be reminiscing of the late nineties and early noughties when Jonny Milner brings his 1999 WRC edition of the Toyota Corolla out to play on the Closed Roads, East Riding Stages Rally event on 23rd February.
Although Yorkshireman Milner took part in the 2023 edition of the East Riding Stages Rally, finishing 10th Overall, he rarely brings this iconic rally machine out to play these days.
Having last campaigned a full season in a Toyota Corolla back in 2010 in the BTRDA and old British ANCRO Gravel Championship; with two wins on The Pirelli Tour of Cumbria and The Severn Valley on his way to winning the National Gravel Championship title that year, British rally fans will once again get another chance to see the mark out on the stages.
PHOTO: Jonny Milner – East Riding Stages 2023 | By Nigel Pratt (Black Mountains Media)
GETTING ALL GIDDY
When Milner took his back-to-back British Rally titles back in the early noughties (2002/03), he dominated both seasons, finishing on the podium in every single rally.
Whizz forward to the present day and although he might not quite be able to mix it up this year with the current crop of top British Rally Championship crews in their modern-day Rally2 & R5 machinery.
One thing that is for sure is that the sights and sounds of a Corolla WRC car back out on the stages once again and being used in anger is something that we here at Xlerate are getting all giddy about.
NUGGETS FOR NERDS
The boffins in the Xlerate research department believe that the car that Milner drove to his double British Rally Championship titles in 2002/03 was a Ex-Works Factory car from TTE (Toyota Team Europe). Driven by Frenchman Didier Auriol on a handful of events such as Rallye Monte Carlo, Rallye Catalunya and Rally New Zealand in the 1998 World Rally Championship.
The car arrived in Milner’s garage for the 2002 British Rally season and was moved on in 2004 after Milner’s back to back BRC titles, but would return to Milner’s stable once again and used for his 2010 ANCRO National Gravel Championship title.
However, the car that Milner has today and will use on the East Riding Stages is not the same car, but is instead a customer built car supplied by TTE (Toyota Team Europe), so technically not a car with works competition history but a genuine one supplied by the Toyota works team factory. A car which was also driven to a rally victory by some Irish bloke called Kris Meeke whilst he was on holiday in Barbados in 2008.
