July 2021 • Photos Marcus Cervantes, Larry Chen and Pikes Peak International Hill Climb

The saying goes that at the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC) your biggest opponent isn’t other racers but the mountain. This is evident in how many teams fall victims to the 12.41 mile, 156 turn course that sees the finish line at over 14,115 feet and grades averaging 7.2% before the race even begins.

The first pikes peak race was held in 1916, just a short 105 years ago, but there have only been 99 races held, this is due to the two World Wars that force the race not to be run. The 99th running of this historic race also saw the return of fans since the global pandemic caused the 98th running to proceed without fans as a safety precaution, as well as the return of multiple past and current record holders.  54 competitors took the green flag on race day but weather lowered the finish line to Devils Playground. You would think this would have made for a less than stallar race, but it was far from it.

This year we were fortune to have been invited once again by our friend Kash Singh who was competing in his 11th race.  We did a story of Kash and his 1200HP 2017 Ford Mustang GT last year, one of Kash’s many claims to fame is that he does not trailer his race-car, but drives it to the race. He has been doing this since his first race, it’s true many of the cars could be driven to the event, but Kash has made this a yearly occurrence, logging in thousands of miles since for many years he called Detroit and later Seattle home.

Kash was among 51 drivers to finish the race, and although the final outcome was not what he was aiming for, finishing the race is always a huge accomplishment in itself. The fastest car on the mountain was Robin Shute in the Unlimited Class driving a Honda powered Wolf GB08 prototype with a time of 5:55.246. Shute’s bested current record holder and past PPIHC overall winner  Romain Dumas by 36 seconds, Romain was driving a 2019 Porsche 911 GT2RS Clubsport, a far stray from his record setting Volkswagen IDR, but still fast enough to finish in 2nd place overall and first in the Time Attack 1 class.

1st in the Open Wheel class was pole-sitter Paul Dallenbach, who has six PPIHC wins and is also a past record holder, driving a PVA-003 Dallenbach Special open-wheel car. Following Dallenbach was another former overall winner and record holder, Rhys Millen in a Bentley Continental GT3, unfortunately for Rhys, who was competing in the Time Attack 1 class his 6:36.281 was not good enough to beat out Dumas. Other noteworthy participants who took to the mountain included Tanner Foust, former Formula D champions, X-Game gold medalist, rally cross champion and TV host, driving in the Porsche Trophy by Yokohama Class.

One of the biggest attraction at this year PPIHC was not a driver, or highly modified race-car, but a mother bear and her cubs. Lucky for spectators who began to arrive to the venue as early as 1:30AM that the sleuth of bears kept to a tree for most of the race and park rangers roped off their resting place to keep lookie-loos from upsetting the family.

As we stated earlier, at Pikes Peak the mountain and it’s elements is the main competitor you have to face, and that includes mother nature, wildlife and all the bumps, curves and pit falls.

Next year will be the 100th running of this historic race, the dates are still TBD, and we cannot even imagine what race organizers, sponsors, and teams have planned. You can be sure we will also be in attendance to  bring you all the action.

For a full list of results you can visit;

https://ppihc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021-Overall-Results.pdf

For news on the 100th running of the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb  visit;

https://ppihc.org/