Pikes Peak - Does anyone really care?

[L5->R5/CR]

So the tag line for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb has become that it is a bigger deal over seas than it is in the US...

As rally/off road endurance fans does anyone really care about Pikes Peak on a forum as large as this?

[A.F.F.]

Can't speak for others but I don't care about Pikes Peak at all, even it has great traditions. I could take a look if there would be some familiar driver from rally scene taking part. :mark:

[Erki]

Pikes Peak? You mean the oval, right? ;)

[Donney]

No I don't, despite loving the famous "Climb Dance" I don't know the drivers, the regulations, the cars nor basically anything.

[JAM]

In Europe we know Pikes Peak because in the 80's Audi and Peugeot decided to race there with spectacular cars. Besides these facts we know a few about this hill climb race. Audi Sport Quattro S1 and Peugeot 405 Turbo 16 from Pikes Peake Races were very used in promotional videos.

[ST205GT4]

I care. I drove 6-7hrs straight from the middle of Wyoming when I was living over there to have the chance to watch it.

[Camelopard]

In 1994 during a trip to the states we made a big detour to drive to the top, it was June and still bloody cold at the top. People were still skiing in parts. Very nice drive, so I useually take a mild interest each year, although to be honest I've been too busy to know much about this years event.

[N.O.T]

Not anymore..especially since they covered a section with tarmac.

[Josti]

Not anymore..especially since they covered a section with tarmac.

I agree, some time ago I saw some pictures of recent Pikes Peak editions and it seems it's now mostly run on asphalt, which IMO takes all the interest away. Let alone the fact that I have almost no clue about the runners.

I know a short while ago Stig Blomqvist still competed there with a Ford RS200. But to be honest, that was my only interest out of the event in recent years. It seems the excitement is much far to look at, since Suzuki is dominating the event for years now.

[sal]

Saw the 405T16, Rod Millens Toyota "pick up" and an open wheeler Pikes Peak car at Goodwood FOS this year and they were spectacular bits of kit. IMO you dont have to subscribe to any particular brand of motorsport to "get" events like Pikes Peak and they dont always need to be relevant to any specific genre. Yes in rally fans memory banks the glory years of the 80s are uppermost (I know one well known WRC photographer who says that his trips there were better than any WRC event he worked on), however I take an interest in Pikes Peak and the Goldrush hillclimbs, Le Mans, Bathurst and other non rallying events even when the closest I've been to them is my front room. It is a shame when "classics" like the Mille Migilia, Targo Florio are re born as parades for classic cars and not competitive events so I for one hope PP continues to exist.

[L5->R5/CR]

I care. I drove 6-7hrs straight from the middle of Wyoming when I was living over there to have the chance to watch it.

Yeah. It seems that its really Japan, Australia, and New Zealand that still have a fan base...




I agree, some time ago I saw some pictures of recent Pikes Peak editions and it seems it's now mostly run on asphalt, which IMO takes all the interest away. Let alone the fact that I have almost no clue about the runners.

I know a short while ago Stig Blomqvist still competed there with a Ford RS200. But to be honest, that was my only interest out of the event in recent years. It seems the excitement is much far to look at, since Suzuki is dominating the event for years now.


Thanks for the post. This is a large part of the problem. Its about 65% tarmac now which sucks but...

Suzuki only recently came back to the mountain (2006 was there first year back since at the latest 2001)...

Oh well, I'm still going...

[smolvar]

Pikes peak has become like the Indy 500, a previous pinnacle of motorsports now diluted and a shadow of its former self.

[Josti]

Suzuki only recently came back to the mountain (2006 was there first year back since at the latest 2001)...



Ok, I remember Suzuki beeing there already in the 90's so I figured they always stayed in the event. Probably proves the fact that I'm not such aware of the event at this moment (and most other people too).

[jonkka]

Never been, never will.

[Mihai]

I'm kinda following it, due to the fact that I am a fan of hillclimbing. I read a few days ago about the 20th anniversary of Walter Rohrl's climb in his Audi Sport Quattro S1, beating Peugeot's Ari Vatanen. Last year I got documented a lot about the "Race to the Sky" hill climb in New Zealand (also dominated by 'Monster' Tajima). I fancy travelling to both these events at some point in my life.

I enjoy attending hill climbs in my country, I like the atmosphere and the tradition of this kind of sport. Hill climbs such as La Turbie in France or Grossglockner in Austria (Germany?) were famous in the 30s, almost on equal terms with Grand Prix races. Even Romania had a legendary all-gravel hill climb event (Feleac), which was twice won by Hans Stuck Sr.

Pikes Peak only became known in Europe since the 80s thanks to the publicity exploits of Audi and Peugeot. It drew a burst of attention when Audi presented a Quattro concept car called 'Pikes Peak'.

[Tomi]

Not interested of the event it self, but Ari's and Walthers driving was ok to watch.

[ST205GT4]

I have to admit to surprise that so few of the forum members who like rallying have no real interest in what is (or was) basically a fantastic single rally stage run with cars that are as good or better as the old Group B cars.

It's almost like qualifying in F1. The drivers know they only have a few runs to get this one stage right so they have to give their all in one effort. None of this jockeying for road position or any other rubbish that goes on in the WRC. Just pure unadulterated 110% maximum attack up an amazing course.

[Tomi]

I have to admit to surprise that so few of the forum members who like rallying have no real interest in what is (or was) basically a fantastic single rally stage run with cars that are as good or better as the old Group B cars.

It's almost like qualifying in F1. The drivers know they only have a few runs to get this one stage right so they have to give their all in one effort. None of this jockeying for road position or any other rubbish that goes on in the WRC. Just pure unadulterated 110% maximum attack up an amazing course.

Maybe if some proper drivers would do those hill climbing events at the same time people would get interested, 1 real driver every 10 years cant keep people interested is my guess.

[sollitt]

I have to admit to surprise that so few of the forum members who like rallying have no real interest in what is (or was) basically a fantastic single rally stage run with cars that are as good or better as the old Group B cars.

It's not really surprising ST205GT4. The forum is largely European orientated.

You're right about the event. It's long been a major part of US motorsport. The WRC stars only turned up a couple of times, and frankly, the event has never needed them. It used to, and would now, benefit more from big name US drivers from other codes being involved.

Tomi - Rod Millen & Monster Tajima not real drivers?

[Mihai]

6-time WRC rally winner Kenneth Eriksson drove a 750 bhp ex-Possum Bourne Impreza WRC in this year's "Race to the Sky" hill climb. At least he's a proper driver on gravel, isn't he?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p0Qh0wGkDs

[Tomi]

Tomi - Rod Millen & Monster Tajima not real drivers?
Neider 1 is a top WRC driver in my opinion, to create some interest to some village event I think it would be good to bring there many world level drivers at the same time, the place is not the thing that makes an event great in my opinion its the level of the competitors, same goes for all sports.

[xavier]

Maybe if some proper drivers would do those hill climbing events at the same time people would get interested, 1 real driver every 10 years cant keep people interested is my guess.

I think it's pretty arrogant to assume that unless a driver is competing in the WRC they are not real drivers....

Are the French or Finnish driver competting in their national championship not real driver? You dont go see local rally?

I am surprise to read the reaction about pikes peak, the track is challenging, the site is nice, the car are pretty beefy!

Are you guys reacting that way on the assumption americans don't and can't know what rallying is?

[Tomi]

I think it's pretty arrogant to assume that unless a driver is competing in the WRC they are not real drivers....

Are the French or Finnish driver competting in their national championship not real driver? You dont go see local rally?

I am surprise to read the reaction about pikes peak, the track is challenging, the site is nice, the car are pretty beefy!

Are you guys reacting that way on the assumption americans don't and can't know what rallying is?

The question was, why are not people much interested in the pikes peak. French and Finnish drivers in their national championship is national level drivers, i dont think it would help much if national level drivers would go and drive there, to get people and media interested you need world level drivers to compete.
Offcourse i go and see local rally, but im not very surprised if someone in Vanuatu is not interested in our local championship.

[sollitt]

Neider 1 is a top WRC driver in my opinion............. to create some interest to some village event..........

Tomi, you truly are a ****er!

Rod Millen holds the all time record up the mountain. Faster than your precious WRC drivers in their GrpB rockets.

The event, rather than being a "village event" was one of the world's premier motorsport events. It was names like Andretti & Unser that made it so, not Rorhl & Vatanen. They were mere interlopers who really added no colour whatsoever.

[Tomi]

Tomi, you truly are a ****er!

Rod Millen holds the all time record up the mountain. Faster than your precious WRC drivers in their GrpB rockets.

The event, rather than being a "village event" was one of the world's premier motorsport events. It was names like Andretti & Unser that made it so, not Rorhl & Vatanen. They were mere interlopers who really added no colour whatsoever.

The keyword is still "was" one. Records are made to be broken so whats the point.

[Josti]

Tomi, you truly are a ****er!

Rod Millen holds the all time record up the mountain. Faster than your precious WRC drivers in their GrpB rockets.

The event, rather than being a "village event" was one of the world's premier motorsport events. It was names like Andretti & Unser that made it so, not Rorhl & Vatanen. They were mere interlopers who really added no colour whatsoever.

Doesn´t matter who´s faster, as Tomi said records are to be broken. Your quite wrong to say that cars like the Quattro S1 and the 405 T16 did not added any colour. I can´t help to remember even Bobbie Unser was overexcited about the S1. With all do respect, most people will refer to Vatanen, Röhrl and Mouton instead of Millen, Andretti or Unser. Nothing strange when rallyfans get interested when actual top WRC drivers enter the event.

[Bjorn240]

I've done the event 2 or 3 times. 2, I think. It's totally forgettable. Quite poor organization who seem to think they're running the Monaco F1 race. Road wide enough to spin a TIR tractor and not go off. And totally dull in anything but a 1200hp force-fed tube-framed rocket. So care to watch it? No. I couldn't bear it from the co-driver's seat - following results on the internet doesn't seem more exciting. Though it would save me the lectures from the organizers, I suppose.

[WRXedUSA]

Never been, never will.

When it was part of the USAC crown, and during the '80's, it was.

Today it's not.

After Tajima breaks the record this year, they should retire the race. There are just too many problems to mention with it.

Leaving on Thursday though...

[jeffy]

Ran it 3 times (02-04) as part of the SCCA rally division, and the hill itself is fantastic (It truely is sad that green nazis have dictated it being paved).
My first rallydriver (Colin McCleery) is running it this year in his Ford Sierra turned XR-8.
Everything else that Bjorn240 said is spot on. Slow car = total boredom.
Organizer is a pompous *ss, and does little to respect the backgrounds of other racers. IMHO the hillclimb has inbreeding issues in respect with entries, that and with the way 95% of Americains want to view motorsports (Full view ovals). I think it's doomed. Very sad.

[WRCfan]

Pikes Peak has recieved a lot more publicity since Andrew Hawkeswood took his "mitsubishi evo skin" monster to the mountain. 700BHP spaceframe with bolt on panels. An impressive piece of kit it is! Seen it in New Zealand drifting on a dirt oval, the noise, backfiring and overall presence of the car left the crowd with their mouths hanging open. He won his class from memory too.

As well as having the Queenstown Race to the Sky hillclimb which Rod Millen and Monster Tajima frequent. Also having Possum Bourne killed in preparation for the event all rally fans know about hillclimb and love it because of Possum's passion for the event. A true hero was Possum.

WRCfan

[WRXedUSA]

Actually, the names that have been bringing the attention to the race as of late have been Donner, Dallenbach, Koseki*, Tajima, Unser, Blomqvist and oddly, Jesse James.

I don't even think Hawkeswood even made it into the spectator program that year.

[WRCfan]

Hey may not have made it into the program although he came second, would be a class result not overall. Not bad considering he did part of the run on a flat tyre.

I also read somewhere, a 4th placing. Could this be overall? Im not 100% sure but 2nd in class I have heard of before in NZ motorsport magazines...

[N.O.T]

The reason i don't really like hillclimb events and i kind agree with tomi that these are not real drivers is simply because it reminds me of track racing....doing a stage no matter how challenging it is a million times you are going to learn every corner by heart at the end.

I enjoy seeing these monsters go uphill and hear the magnifiscent sound but to me it doesn't prove anything as far as driving skill goes.

[Stalks]

The event to us in NZ means a lot (or used to). It really was the holy grail of Hillclimbs, and was a lot of peoples dreams to get over there and compete or spectate. Due largely to the famous names of the past (Millen, Vatanen, Rhorl etc....), it created interest from far and wide, and was always worth watching on ESPN.
Having said that, and having been there with Andrew, I can't agree more with Bjorn - the organisers are the most arrogant, stubborn and one eyed bunch of old goats it's not funny.
Basically they couldn't give a toss about who you are or what you drive unless you are a 'Unser', 'Donner' or some other name from 20 years ago.
We went there, bust our gut to comply with their antique rules and regulations (which seemed to change day by day), and basically got no help from any part of the organisers. So Andrew got mad, stormed up the hill to qualify 2nd or 3rd outright. Suddenly we got some interest, still not from the organisers, but from fellow competitors and spectators.
Come race day Andrew had a puncture 3 miles from the top (at the time was leading at almost every split time), so finished off the podium. We were gutted.....
Being good sportsmen, it's only polite to still turn up to the prizegiving, so we duly did.
I think almost everybody in the room got a special mention for traveling to the event from far and wide (by this I mean everyone that traveled from interstate). Absolutely no mention of the Japanese teams or the little team from New Zealand that had so nearly caused an upset.
We went away pretty much convinced that even if we had won, or got on the podium, somehow the rules would have been bent or changed to ensure we didn't rate a mention.

Still, it was a hell of an adventure, a lot of hard work, and a lot of fun, and we would probably have looked at returning but for it now being almost tarmac the whole way up.

To me, if Monster breaks the record this year it won't mean much. The record will always belong to Millen due to the course surface having changed so much since Millens time was set.

[WRCfan]

Shame to hear that although when it comes to things like this they wouldn't like their holy grail belonging to someone else. Like their World Series Baseball. Usually if a country holds a World Series, they actually invite the rest of the world....

[ST205GT4]

Well I for one enjoyed watching Andrew go up in 05. Great looking car and it sounded awesome.

Couple of shots I took of him on the way up.

http://wrc.smugmug.com/photos/73141462-O.jpg

http://wrc.smugmug.com/photos/73141465-O.jpg

[Donney]

Wow great pictures!!!

[L5->R5/CR]

I too had a blast seeing Andrew and his monster tackle the peak (I also got a kick out of seeing him in the Galant that the rally community sourced for hit to get some high speed recon/practice in). I have some other shots in my 2005 gallery on my site, although ST205GTs are EXCELLENT!

2007:
Day One Photos: http://kevinhahnphotography.com/2007/2007PPIHCD1/
Day Two Photos: http://kevinhahnphotography.com/2007/2007PPIHCD2/
Day Three Photos: http://kevinhahnphotography.com/2007/2007PPIHCD3/

[Xeroid]

Pikes Peak tarsealed ? .. they've lost the plot.

One of the things that went for Pikes Peak ( and still does for Race to the Sky ) was that unlike WRC which is driven almost solely by the marketing geeks from the manufacturers it was much a competitors event. It was entered by and run for them, not the manu's. A chance for almost anyone with a bit of budget to have a go. OK, I appreciate that some had more budget than others and there is/was some degree of manu support in many cases but any Tom, Dick or Ari with some passion could at least have a go in their class and try to out do their last effort.

Shame that PP has become so disinfected it's lost it's go .... but roll on Race to the Sky !! Plenty of gravel and big drops ...

And I still like Rally, WRC and National, despite the problems in both.

[L5->R5/CR]

Monster broke the record but not 10 minutes.

Rhys Millen pledged to more than a couple of people to return in 2008 to reclaim the record for the Millen family. I half expect that he will de-mothball the Tacoma and put a new body skin on it and run in the 9:40s...

Race day photos here: http://kevinhahnphotography.com/2007/2007PPIHCRD/

[WRXedUSA]

What a great day.

Perfect weather and a perfect run. With the new crap talking, is the hill alive again?

Congratulations Suzuki Sport and Tajima.

[bowler]

http://www.ppihc.com/Default.aspx

[sal]

For anyone in the UK,next months evo magazine will be carrying a full feature on Pikes Peak apparantley..

[L5->R5/CR]

For anyone in the UK,next months evo magazine will be carrying a full feature on Pikes Peak apparantley..



10 pages or so of coverage according to the photographer there from EVO.

I am already planning on picking up an import copy in the US.

[Daniel]

10 pages or so of coverage according to the photographer there from EVO.

I am already planning on picking up an import copy in the US.
Get a subsciption while you're at it :) Other than RallyXS which I subscribed to as a stupid 19 year old or something Evo is the only magazine I've ever bothered to buy religiously/subscribe to. The quality of journalism in Evo is second to none and it's always a joy to read :) The guy who writes www.sniffpetrol.com (http://www.sniffpetrol.com) (Richard Porter) even writes a column in Evo which is always worth a read.

[L5->R5/CR]

Get a subsciption while you're at it :) Other than RallyXS which I subscribed to as a stupid 19 year old or something Evo is the only magazine I've ever bothered to buy religiously/subscribe to. The quality of journalism in Evo is second to none and it's always a joy to read :) The guy who writes www.sniffpetrol.com (http://www.sniffpetrol.com) (Richard Porter) even writes a column in Evo which is always worth a read.




$80.00 for 13 issues since it is an import in the US, hard to justify the expense...

[Glee]

A relay mean machine: http://www.suzukisport.com/motorsport/hillclimb/06/pikespeak/specification.html

But I'm not quit sure if it is ugly as h*** or cool as it can be...

[Daniel]

$80.00 for 13 issues since it is an import in the US, hard to justify the expense...
I used to pay about that in Australia to buy a years worth of issues in the shop :)

[WRXedUSA]

http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u248/WRXedUSA/PPIHC2007/

Here are my photos. There is a video of Monster coming by Glen Cove.

That thing stuck to the pavement.

[Glee]

It is said that a WRC car holds proximately 50 parts with is original, most of them are in the doors. Is there any original part in this Monster Suzuki???

[L5->R5/CR]

It is said that a WRC car holds proximately 50 parts with is original, most of them are in the doors. Is there any original part in this Monster Suzuki???




Shift nob?


>:}


Its the unlimited class, who cares?

[Glee]

Its the unlimited class, who cares?

Care and car....

Just curious.

Wonder how this car would preform in a WRC field...

[Daniel]

Care and car....

Just curious.

Wonder how this car would preform in a WRC field...
It's a different car for a very different type of event.

[LotusElise]

Will look out for next month's Evo. I love hillclimbing and normally Pikes Peak gets aprroximately zip coverage in the UK.

[Daniel]

Will look out for next month's Evo. I love hillclimbing and normally Pikes Peak gets aprroximately zip coverage in the UK.
If you can get a subscription from this months issue. £1 for 3 issues and a free print :)