Beset by a 37-day delay due to wildfires in Colorado, the Race to the Clouds finally got off the ground in mid-August. Rhys Millen and his stout Time Attack-class Hyundai Veloster had an epic showdown with Frenchman Romain Dumas, winner of the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, and his Open class Porsche GR3R. Dumas struck first killing Nobuhiro Tajima’s previous record up the 156-turn labyrinth by posting a 9:46.181. Later it was Millen’s turn to scream to the 14,100-foot summit. Millen had to carve every apex to perfection as he clocked a 9:46.164, for a scant .017-second margin of victory. “With the newly paved section of the course and the hot weather conditions, a lot of people failed or crashed. Our car’s balance remained the same from practice to race day using these Hankook F200 tires this entire run. Even on a slick tire and torrential downpour in the last mile and a half, with the heat we were able to achieve in the tires the grip was still adequate and we were able to produce a new world record,” said a triumphant Millen. The 90th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb will also be remembered for Jeremy Foley‘s epic cliff-dive, rollover frenzy wreck in his Lancer Evolution in the Devil’s Playground section of the course. Search it on You Tube, it’s pretty amazing.
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