Pikes Peak-The Race to the Clouds By John Lamm
Like the Indianapolis 500, the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Another legendary American race, it does not quite go 500 miles, but measures 12.4 miles long and climbs from 9,390 feet to finish at 14,115 feet. Those are the hard statistics, but if you’ve been up to the summit of Pikes Peak you can also imagine the visual of a vehicle racing up the twisting highway against a magnificent background.
The history of the hill climb is studded with names from America’s automotive past. It would be difficult to count the number of times Unser shows up, whether it’s Louis or Louis J. or Bobby or Al or Al Jr. or Jerry or Robby. The Dallenbachs. Parnelli Jones. Rhys Millen. The list goes on.
Then there are the imports, Rod Millen, Michèle Mouton, Walter Rohrl and the Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima.
We’re only scratching the surface and won’t even get into the vehicles. That’s because one of the beauties of the hill climb is the diversity of its classes. There are new cars, vintage cars, open wheelers, trucks, Time Attack machines, several classes of motorcycles and even 4-wheel quads. And those classes can change from year to year. If you want to get some idea of this assortment, click the link below.
Browse through the list of record holders. Again note the variety of vehicles and then just imagine some of them storming up the mountain. We found two friends of Revs on the list. Jeff Zwart twice, driving Porsches. No surprise there. And Bruce Canepa in the Big Rig tandem axle class, racing a 1999 Kenworth T2000 semi cab. Didn’t we say there is variety?
One of the new classes is for electric cars. Their advantage is not having to deal with the thinner air at high altitudes and they put it to good advantage. In 2015, two Pikes Peak regulars, Rhys Millen and Nobuhiro Tajima, finished 1-2 in electric vehicles.
This year Millen finished 2nd, again in an electric car and cutting his fast time to 8:57.118, the third quickest time ever. Who beat him? Romain Dumas in a Honda-powered Norma at 8:51.445. Just the Sunday before, Dumas had co-driven a Porsche 919 to victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Fastest time ever? That came in 2013 when Sébastien Loeb drove a Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak to the top in 8:13.878. If you want to know what it’s like to drive to the top, here is an excellent Red Bull ride-along video of Loeb’s record run.
To get a sense of the machines’ relative times against each other, check out the link.
Photos from the climb used to be famous for racers sliding around dirt corners. Not anymore. After losing a court battle with the Sierra Club, the city of Colorado Springs was forced to pave the road. As of 2012, the course is completely paved, but concerns this might lessen the event haven’t played out. Naturally times dropped, but interest in the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb has not. And just wait until next year.
By the way, if you’ve never been up Pikes Peak, put it on your list. It’s no wonder Katharine Lee Bates got the inspiration for the words that became the lyrics of America the Beautiful while atop Pikes Peak.
Now we present a gallery of images from the 2016 Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, with credit to Randels Media Group/Revvolution.com, Official Photographers of the PPIHC. Thanks guys.
