Sorry it took me so long to post this. I lost my camera card reader.

Anyway, on July 21, I made my way up to Pike's Peak Highway for the 85th Annual "Race to the Clouds," a dangerous rally up a portion of the public road winding to the mountain's very top. The race spans approximately 12.7 miles of the 16 mile road, and in that distance covers an elevation change of about one vertical mile. All kinds of cars turn out in several different classes, including two Factory Five Shelby Cobras, time attack Evos and STIs, two showroom stock VW Touareg TDIs, a Porsche 928 to rival Richard Paul's, a convoy of custom-built open wheelers that resemble the bastard offspring of a Formula 1 and a sprint car, too many bikes and quad-bikes to count, a Freightliner (yes, you read that right) sporting a Mercedes diesel and a HUGE rear wing, and the Suzuki XL7 "Monster" that set a new record of 10:01, breaking Toyota's record of 10:03.

The only Mazda showing there was a Mazdaspeed3 from Rally America, driven by Eric Burmeister. I tracked down his crew, which turned out to be one guy in a trailer, shortly after he set off. It turns out he may have been a mechanical DNF due to a malfunctioning fly-by-wire throttle, though I never heard for sure. His crew man lost radio contact. When I told him my intended destination for these pictures, he said they'd appreciate if we all gave Eric our support in his continued racing career.

And now, the pictures:










The currently wheel-less Red Bull Solstice, powered by an upgraded version of the GXP's Turbo-4 Ecotec. No LS1 swap here.




The finish line is somewhere up there.


One of the Cobras is off!


The VW Touaregs actually did reasonably well for a diesel SUV.


The Solstice was an instant fan favorite. It drifted nicely around the first corner, just showing off. On the way back down when the race was over, the driver stopped to do some donuts.






You can't tell because of the film speed, but it's actually starting off and smoking its tires. You should have heard the sound this thing made.


Eric Burmeister's Mazdaspeed3. They stuck him in Unlimited Class against the big boys instead of Super Stock because... he didn't have a stock dashboard. Go figure.

 

More....









I discovered that further up the road, they don't bother with fences. Spectators know to stay off the road or be roadkill. The cool part about that was you could stand a little past the apex of a turn and watch as, just a few yards away, these cars flew around the corners sounding like the end of the world. That's how I got this bike shot.

 

Awesome pics man! Thanks for sharing.

I really hope to make it over there one day.

 

great pics man!

 

Thanks for posting the pics. Go Mazda!!

 

sweet pics but isnt the blue solstice rhys millen's car that he uses in formula D?

 

I went to the Pikes Peak Hillclimb three times in the 90's. I feel it was much better before the paving started. Is still a great race to see. In 95, the race was shortened three miles because the top of the mountain was having an ice storm. The Indy 500 is oldest race in the US, and Pikes Peak is the 2nd oldest. If you ever get a chance, go to this race.

 

Half of it is still unpaved, and I think that really adds a unique challenge to it (as if it wasn't unique enough already). The cars need to be able to cope with both surfaces. Running off-road tires will hurt your performance on the pavement, and vice-versa. Besides, its still dirt where it really counts, way up top.

 

those are awesome pictures!
(but what's with the SUV?? )

 

Nice pics!!

 

man!! that looks like so much fun!!!

 

I hate you dude. CS is my home town and i'm stuck in Florida

 

VW ran the Touaregs in the "showroom stock" class, which is basically a way for manufacturers to try to flaunt their technology. If those SUVs are making you go WTF, you should have seen the one that set the record.

And that Solstice probably is the same one from Formula D. Most big-budget teams like that don't build a car exclusively for this race, it just isn't high-profile enough to warrant it. So they use cars from other race series, like the Rally America MS3. Only the XL7 and the open-wheel racers are the kind of thing prepared specifically for Pike's.