"I’m still young,” said the then 46-year-old Volkswagen factory driver Mark Miller when commenting on his second place at the Dakar Rally and his chances of winning it in the future. And he wasn’t being facetious. The American has been following an approach that is somewhat unusual in sport, and highly successfully at that. The investment manager from Arizona sacrificed a career as a motorcycle racer in order to study and pursue a professional career in business. He only drove his first Dakar Rally in 2002. Since 2005 he has been a member of the Volkswagen team.
 
Despite his untypical career the family father possesses sporting qualities that virtually predestine him for cross-country rally racing. He pursues highly intense fitness training in a gym that was also used by the German national football team in a training camp. He works systematically, does not set unrealistic goals and thus reduces the pressure he puts on himself. That Miller nevertheless – or perhaps because of this – only had to admit defeat by less than nine minutes at the finish of the Dakar Rally after 48 hours of straight driving speaks for his approach – and for the fact that at age 47
he is by no means too old to fight for a "Dakar” victory again.