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Pikes Peak International Hill Climb: The Race to the Clouds

The 90th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb will be held this weekend after a delay caused by wildfires in Colorado. First held in 1916, Pikes Peak is the second oldest, still-running motorsports event in the United States and is only surpassed by the Indianapolis 500. This is the largest Pikes Peak ever with 182 entrants - 87 drivers and 95 riders - going up the mountain.

The Course Map

The event is setup like a rally with cars and motorcycles making runs individually up the 12.42-mile (19.99km), 156-corner route. The race was first created to encourage tourism to the relatively remote area at the time. When the event started it was held entirely on dirt and gravel roads. However, over time the road up the hill has been paved in sections. In 2011, just the final 30% of the route was unpaved. The 2012 event will be the first year ever that the entire route is paved. While this makes the hill climb safer and will increase speeds, some entrants, including driver Rod Millen, have argued that it ruins the race. Part of the reason for paving the route was that for the rest of the year, the road up Pikes Peak is a toll road open to visitors. Paving it simply makes it safer for 99% of users.

The route up Pikes Peak begins at 9,390ft above sea level and rises to 14,110ft above sea level. At the peak there is only 60% of the oxygen available at sea level. This is part of the reason that turbocharged and supercharged vehicles have tended to be the fastest vehicles up the road.

There are 23 classes total for cars, motorcycles and quads. It is one of the few races in the world with a true Unlimited Class. As long as cars meet basic safety requirements there are no limits placed on displacement or power in this class. There are also classes for cars and motorcycles based on displacement and whether or not they have been modified.

The current record time up the hill was set last year by Nobuhiro Tajima in a Suzuki SX4Suzuki SX4Japan, 2006 > present56 versions
68 photos
with 900hp that did a 9:51.278 time. It was the first time that the 10-minute barrier had been broken. It is expected that the record time this year will fall because of the entirely paved route.

This year the major competitors have moved to the Electric Class, including Tajima. There is also Toyota's P002ToyotaJapan, 1937 > present155 models
4570 photos
10 videos
and the Mitsubishi i-MIEV EvolutionMitsubishi i-MiEV EvolutionJapan, 2012 > present1 photo
. In the Unlimited Class, there is a Ford RS200 EVO, an RS200Ford RS200United Kingdom, 1984 > 19861 photo
, an Acura NSXHonda NSXJapan, 1990 > present1 photo
1 video
and more.

During the 80s, the top Unlimited Class cars were occasionally Group B rally cars. Although the race was not part of the championship, teams would still come from Europe to race up the mountain. The best-recorded case of this is in 1987 when Ari Vatanen set record-breaking time with a Peugeot 405 T16Peugeot 405 T 16France, 1993 > present1 photo
and filmed it. AudiAudi Sport Quattro S1 'Pi...Germany, 1986 > present1 photo
has also tried its hand up the mountain.

Pikes Peak will run this year from August 8 to August 12. The 8th, 9th and 10th are test days. Teams have from noon to 8:00pm to get a final setup for their cars on the 11th, and the 12th is the only day that the cars are officially timed up the hill.

There is a massive of variety of videos available showing runs up Pikes Peak, but the two definitive ones are Climb Dance, and the video of Tajima setting the record last year. Both are embedded below.