With just 1:55.189 to the checkpoint at the picnic ground, he was the one and only car in the class to break the two-minute mark. "The checkpoint is right as you go through Picnic Ground straightaway, right as the pavement finishes and it turns to dirt. At that point I was just like, 'This thing is flying, this is going to be an incredible time.'" But on the same slippery dirt that hampered Monster, that was not to be, and Rhys had to be content with a time well under his expectations. Another blow was watching the outright record finally fall. "Dad's record stood for 13 years," explains the New Zealand-born race driver Millen, Jr. "It was set on an all-dirt road, and this road is now 50- to 60-percent paved. It really puts me in a mindset that I want to come back and put that record back in the Millen name." Millen may have plans to build a faster, more competitive car for 2008, which should be better suited to the increasing asphalt sections that are slowly but surely advancing year by year towards the top of the mountain.
The Sierra Club has a mandate that will see the road 100-percent paved by 2010. This new Time Attack class will surely attract a large number of vehicles developed for road and track work with the challenge of the legendary Pikes Peak course beaconing. But for now, plans are being laid for another great battle between the clock, the mountain, Monster and Mr. Millen, not discounting a number of other parties eyeing up that elusive 10 minute barrier; 2008 is sure shaping to be a stunning competition. The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is as challenging today as it was the first time, back in 1916, and remains one of the most spectacular places on Earth to view incredibly fast racecars, bikes and ATVs sliding their way up a mountain.
Pikes Peak Highway: A Long and Winding Road
Way back in 1873, a primitive road opened on Pikes Peak. Horses dragged the passengers up the first half of the mountain, then altitude-hardy mules took care of the rest. It wasn't until the automobile became more common that local entrepreneur Spencer Penrose, owner of the luxurious Broadmoor Hotel, widened and improved it as a tourism scheme to attract more people to the region and eventually held the first hill climb race in 1916.
B Happy
When the evil powers that be of international rallying banned the no holds barred Group B formula in 1986 after a number of driver deaths, manufacturers like Audi and Peugeot had the perfect excuse to make a series of trips to Pikes Peak.
There was nowhere else to race these fire-breathing machines, and not driving them was probably a sin. This is perhaps the reason that the event has gained infamy across Europe. Climb Dance, an incredible video of Ari Vatanen's Peugeot 405 T16 setting a record in 1998, was so widely watched around the world that Pikes Peak instantly found legendary status. Watch it at www.ifilm.com/video/2674471.
Robot Uprising
The first robot version of Pikes Peak will run later this year. Modeled after the real thing, it is basically a race for full-sized radio-controlled cars. A video of the course can be found at www.driverlessmotorsports.com/pprhc.
Bust A Move
The well-known slogan Pikes Peak or Bust, painted across many of the prairie schooners, is a reference to Colorado's Gold Rush. While there was a lot of rushing done, there wasn't a great deal of gold. Other local areas like Cripple Creek, strangely, were packed with the stuff.
Get On Up
More than 400,000 people go up Pikes Peak's 14,110 ft. annually. Pikes Peak is the second most visited mountain in the world after Mt Fuji.
Not The Remix
Katherine Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful" after being inspired by the view from Pikes Peak.
Old Skool Climber
In 1916 Floyd Clymer set an overall record at Pikes Peak on an Excelsior motorcycle of 21 minutes, 58 seconds. This year, Eddie Mulder set a new vintage bike class record of 13:23:250 on a 1969 Triumph Bonneville.
Popular Hill
Pikes Peak is the second oldest motorsport event in America, behind the Indianapolis 500 that started in a brickyard in 1911.
Thanks to:
Susan Apgar and Bob Gillis-Pikes Peak International Hillclimb-Nobuhiro Monster Tajima-Suzuki Sport, Rhys Millen and Eric Cantore-Rhys Millen Racing and Mike Ryan-Mike Ryan Motorsports.