Living in Southern California, one might look at 23-year-old Ryan Millen and expect him to be riding a surfboard, not a big off-road truck tackling some of the toughest races in the world. Yet that's exactly what he does, having run the treacherous Baja 1000 several times and coming oh-so-close to a class win in the MillenWorks-prepared FJ Cruiser Racetruck in 2006.

After a brief fling with circuit racing, the son of five-time Pikes Peak Hill Climb overall winner Rod Millen and brother of drifting ace Rhys, has set his long-term sights on something a little more adventurous: off-road racing. His latest challenge is New Zealand's infamous Taupo 1000.

This time he's not only the driver, but also the team manager responsible for truck preparation, transportation and all the logistics of running a race half a world away from his Orange County, California, base.

He once again works with his right-hand man from Baja, co-driver and engineering ace Adam Dupre, who both handles truck preparation and rides in the right seat. "He's there because he's so talented when it comes to mechanical things. We both work well together." But this time they'll have to do it without Rod Millen as one of the drivers, the senior Millen and New Zealand native having chosen to observe his son's "rites of passage" adventure.

While the Taupo 1000 may seem like an easier task than Baja -- a shorter distance, with only some 35 miles of course run several times, and broken into two halves so there's time for actual sleep -- the vehicle of choice is still a Toyota FJ Cruiser not too far removed from its road car siblings, and very similar to the one that carried them down the Baja peninsula in 2006.