2013 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Will Go On Sunday, June 30
Colorado Springs, September 19--------The 91st running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb has been set for Sunday, June 30, 2013.
Tentative future dates have been set for the event through 2017, each around the same time, which should make planning easier for competitors, the legion of fans who attend the annual auto and motorcycle showdown atop the 14,100-foot mountain just west of Colorado Springs and local businesses and services.
Additional planning and study is being coordinated for the actual full race week schedule, with an announcement to come. The annual Fan Fest, which drew more than 30,000 fans to downtown Colorado Springs, will be Friday, June 28.
The PPIHC Board of Directors has announced the future tentative dates:
2014------June 29
2015------June 28
2016------July 3 (100th Anniversary Celebration (1916) on Monday, July 4)
2017------June 25
“We felt that it was practical to establish similar dates for the future for many reasons,” said PPIHC Chairman Tom Osborne. “It gives the drivers, racers, fans, sponsors, suppliers and the many businesses and organizations that support the race a clear path to plan ahead for race week, and that can be helpful as the race continues its amazing growth.”
The 90th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on August 12 this summer had it all for thousands of fans and the drivers and racers who came to Colorado Springs for the race, delayed from its original date of July 8 by the horrific Waldo Canyon Fire.
The 37-day delay brought fans of the nation’s second-oldest motor sports race everything they ever dreamed of, and more.
It turned out to be the fastest of them all since it began in 1916.
A total of eleven new records had been set by drivers and racers from 14 countries and the benefits of a fully-paved course were obvious, and so were the dangers and the speeds over the 12.41 mile, fully-paved course that includes 156 turns.
83 automobiles and 87 motorcycles were on hand at the start of a sunny, cloudless sky at the Rocky Mountain Ford Start Line, but by the end of a very long day, the summit of Pikes Peak endured snow, hail, rain and wind, with race officials shortening the course by almost 3,000 feet for the last pair of divisions. By then, the temperature on top was just 38 degrees.
Two major crashes and a flurry of red flags delayed the program for more than two hours, but before those, the now fully-paved course was turning over records as fast as one could blink.
The first five motorcycle divisions produced course records, highlighted by the blistering 9:52.819 turned in by Ducati’s Carlin Dunne in the 1205cc field, the best ever on the mountain by a motorcycle. It wiped out the old record of 11:11.329 that Dunne established last year as a rookie.
He needed the record because Greg Tracy was right behind him on his own Multistrada and ripped off a 9:58.262. That’s the stuff of legends, two bikes under ten seconds right away!
The stunner of the day came in the loaded Electric auto division, and it was a shock.
Japan’s Nobuhiro Tajima, who had won the last six Unlimited titles and who was the defending King of the Mountain, roared off in search of another course record. But a fire in his engine forced him to the side early. He climbed out of his auto and walked back to the start line.
But that only set the table for the drama that soon was to unfold.
French star Romain Dumas, winner of the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, had entered the Pikes Peak Open as a rookie, but a rookie with worlds of experience and a great endurance performer. Veteran observers during the week noted his fast practice times and nodded.
Buckled into his sleek Porsche GR3R, Dumas roared through his 156 turns and obliterated Tajima’s course record set last summer with a fire-and-ice clocking of 9:46.181 that reverberated up and down the mountain, and around the racing world on the internet. There he was, atop America’s Mountain, with the fastest time ever.
Now came Rhys Millen for the 18th time on the Peak, the son of famed Rod Millen and an eight-time champion who originally was entered in Unlimited, but switched to Time Attack in the spring.
Mixed in a tough field with defending champion Brianne Corn, veteran Dave Kern and others, Millen had a goal – to return the record held by his father until 2011 to the Millen family in his familiar Hyundai Genesis Coupe.
No mechanical issues this time, no squishy brakes, no misses at all for the polished Californian by way of New Zealand.
When he got the flag at 14,100-feet and unbuckled himself, people were running to him from the Summit House, and they were yelling “9:46.164!” Millen heard it and believed it, and his arms went to the sky.
The record was back in the Millen family by the narrowest of margins.
2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Results
Automobile Classes
Time Attack: Rhys Millen, Huntington Beach, CA…………………………...9:46.164 (Course record)
Pikes Peak Open: Romain Dumas, Basel, Switzerland…………………..9:46.181 (New Record)
Open Wheel: Spencer Steele, Denver, CO…………………………………. 4:13.240 @
Super Stock Car (Modified): Layne Schranz , Birmingham, AL)………4:21.290 @
Super Stock Car: Clint Vahsholtz, Woodland Park, CO………………….. 4:36.870 @
Vintage Auto RMVR: Jess Neal, Colorado Springs, CO…………………. 12:03.858 (New RMVR Record)
Unlimited: David Donner, Colorado Springs…………………………………… 10:04.652
Electric Auto: Fumio Nutahara, Hokkaido, Japan……………………………. 10:15.380 (New Record)
Exhibition: Rick Knoop, Laguna Beach, CA……………………………………. 10:56.240
@ Shortened course/weather
Motorcycle Classes
250cc: Jason Archuleta, Colorado Springs, CO………………………………… …….11:41.015 (New Record)
450cc: Travis Newbold, Montrose, CO …………………………………………………….11:06.618 (New Record)
750cc: Gary Trachy, Orange, CA…………………………………………………………….10:40.753 (New Record)
1205cc: Carlin Dunne, Santa Barbara, CA…………………………………………… …9:52.819 (New Motorcycle Course Record)
Quad Modified: Steve Tutt, Platte City, MO……………………………………………11:40.521 (New Record)
Sidecar: John-Thomas Wood, Victorville, CA ……………………………………………11:41.406 (New Record)
Vintage: Marc LaNoue, Houston, TX………………………………………………………..12:39.782 (New Record)
Exhibition Powersport: Doug Siddens, Austin, TX ………………………………….10:40.669
Mike Moran
Senior Media Consultant
The Colorado Springs Sports Corporation
1631 Mesa Ave., Suite E
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
(719) 634-7333, ext.1011
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