Pikes Peak hill climb overall winner 2014
 

And here I thought the race was dead after they paved it...I was wrong.

Check it out.

Intense! :thumbsup:

Anyone know the televised schedule? Or did I miss it again... For the 5th consecutive year?

Doesn't surprise me that he did it in a Norma!

http://www.lecont.com/files/.thumbs/...z_norma_03.jpg

That's a lot of rear wing!

Those modifiers and prototypes have a bunch of aero. Huge wing(s), canards, splitters, diffusers, side canards... He'll, even the roof line design On some of them is factored to not only smooth out the line for the rear wing it also provides downforce.

I'm sure some guys in Florida were saying the same thing about Daytona in 1959. Paving hasn't killed it, only changed the nature of it. The race is more popular now than ever and race entries are limited and must go through a selection process. There are discussion of it expanding into a multi-day qualifying event before the race if entries continue to rise.

Speeds have increased as a result of the pavement and viewing is now limited to designated areas. A new challenge to the run is slowing these things down on the limited amount of asphalt after the finish line before it transitions to the dirt parking lot. Bobby Goodin was killed this year when he lost control of his motorcycle while trying to slow in the dirt after his run.

I did notice the spectators were only at a few places like the picnic area, the cove and the playground. I haven't been up there for a long time since I lived in the springs. We always went up the night before and partied hard at the playground.

It looks like they added guard rails in places?

I heard they ran the cars with a different format, like letting the fastest cars run first regardless of class?

I was sorry to hear about the fatality.

Another Impressive display of nads of steel and pretty sick to watch but to put it in context it's no where near Loeb.


"Dumas, who now lives in Geneva, Switzerland, averaged 79.150 miles per hour in his 2013 Norma M20 RD Limited to win the Unlimited Division and overall race title. His time was well off Loeb’s race record of 8:13.878 from last year, but Dumas was thrilled to add his name to the race’s prestigious list of champions."

Still a great race, but I liked it better when it was all dirt

Here's another good vid

What about the Gas Monkey entry? Wasn't there more than one? Do they count?

Do you mean the Aaron Kaufman Falcon? He finished second in his class. The vintage class he runs in was decidely short of entries this year. Does that count, absolutely, within their class, but no one in the vintage class will ever be fast enough to capture an overall win. With the limit on total entries and the factories stepping up their participation in the Time Attack classes, I suspect the trend of fewer vintages cars may continue and is possibly at risk of being dropped.

More results can be found here: http://www.ppihc.com/

My youngest brother has run the Hill Climb 6 or 7 times in one of the motorcycle classes and says it has changed alot with the paving.

Now that I'm reading this I don't know if he ran this year or not....

We went to PP one year that he was running and I know just driving up and down that mountain under normal conditions is breathtaking and has its own pucker factor at times. Much respect to those who race it!!


PS... rumors are true that when you come down there are check points where police/park rangers check your brakes with a temp gun. I'm sure they have had more than one person cook their brakes coming back down the mountain.

Mike Skeen driving the Hawk GTR finsished first in class and 5th overall. It was his first time running the event.

That's true about them checking brake temps.

Back when I was going up there they would stop you at Glen Cove and a ranger would put his hand on the wheels and see how how they were!

Of course he always said to park it for a while and enjoy the snack bar and
and trinkets for sale.

Also as a side note, one year the road was closed on the upper half because of heavy SNOW on the 4th of July.

Yes, they still check brakes since so many visitors do not put their car in low gear and instead ride the pedal on their way down.

Snow in July isn't a common occurence, but does happen. About 10 years ago the race was shortened by moving the finish line lower in elevation because of a snow storm.

That's very cool, in terms of placing that Falcon somewhere good--they're continuing the tradition of the actual "Mighty Falcon." I was just being a putz with my statement, however, I do like to see those guys earn some respect with application, rather than just marketing.

I have two goals for visiting Colorado some day (all my stops at the Denver airport don't quite count): See Pike's Peak (preferably with racing going on) and visit New Belgium Brewing (and ask if I can live there for a while). Cheers!

One thing about Denver is they have some great micro brews.