“Obviously there’s a fear factor,” Boileau said. There have been seven deaths in the event’s history, and race organizers discontinued the motorcycle division in 2021, two years after a rider died. The race is certainly not for the faint of heart: Drivers can reach speeds of more than 140 miles per hour as they climb 4,725 feet up to 14,115 feet, negotiating 156 turns, some along steep cliffs with no guard rails. While it gained some acclaim in the 1960s, when Mario Andretti and Bobby Unser earned victories, it became internationally renowned in the 1980s as global rally champions caught wind of its immense challenge. There’s simply nothing like it in the world.”įounded in 1916 by the entrepreneur Spencer Penrose - and originally conceived as a tourist attraction to promote his hotel, the Broadmoor - Pikes Peak is the second-longest-running race in the U.S. “It’s what first got me into rally when I discovered the race as a teenager back in the ’80s. “Just like F1 has Monte Carlo, rally and hill climbs have Pikes Peak, with its own unique story and tradition,” he said. “Unfortunately, in the U.S., we only have NASCAR and drag racing as our staples.” “In the world of motorsports, rally is second only to Formula 1,” said Ken Block, a 54-year-old American rally driver.
It’s crazy.”Īs the hill climb celebrates its 100th running this weekend, it finds itself in a peculiar situation: a celebrated global race that remains a niche curiosity in the U.S., where hill climbs and rally racing - in which drivers set fast time trials on dirt, gravel and paved public roads - have never quite caught on at a mainstream level. “Then you meet people from Japan, Germany and France who absolutely idolize this place. “There are people who have lived here their whole lives - they even like motorsports - but if you mention the hill climb to them, they’ll say, ‘Oh, is that the thing where you run up the mountain?’” said Tommy Boileau, a 28-year-old Colorado Springs native who will drive in this year’s race. But for many people in the United States, and even some in its host city, Colorado Springs, the race is hardly known at all. Across the world, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is known as one of the most prestigious car races, a treacherous 12.4-mile sprint up one of the highest summits of the Rockies.
0 kommentar(er)
