I am just getting back from the Leadfoot Festival in New Zealand. What an amazing experience!! Rod and Shelly Millen have been dreaming about creating the Leadfoot Festival, right in their own backyard, for years. I am lucky, as I have heard many a conversation with Rod and his son Rhys about how the course was being created, what corner was like some other famous racetrack and how the whole process came together while we worked together as stuntmen on car commercials over the past decade.
The Millen’s trace their racing roots to the countryside roads that criss-cross their beautiful homeland of New Zealand. Rod’s racing began in New Zealand, took him around the world and ultimately he has gone full circle back to NZ where he has built a road that crosses his property with turns that mimic some of his favorite courses, even constructing one of my favorites, the W’s at Pikes Peak. The course and the festival is most definitely, a dream come true for Rod and Shelly. A kiwi version of “Field of Dreams”.
Last year was the inaugural year of the Leadfoot Festival and after hearing about Paul Dallenbach talk about his experience, I knew I had to go….if I was ever so lucky (and fortunate) to be invited. Getting invited this year was a huge honor. I have so much respect for the Millen’s and their driving abilities, their records, their family history, their friendship, I just had to be a part of it. I knew that this was an invitation of a lifetime, one of the check boxes on any racers bucket list and it was most definitely on my list. After I received the invitation, I contacted Jason Chinook, Ducati North America, who was able to help me put something together by getting a Multistrada for me to race from Chris Haldane at Haldane’s Ducati in Auckland. I had all the pieces in place to be able to race. I was going to the Leadfoot Festival!
Read the whole story here: http://mylifeatspeed.com/archives/11978