By nature, the fastest racers in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb — the second-oldest motorsports race in America — are also the gutsiest. It’s why the anything-goes unlimited division draws the shortest field each year.
Survival is always the first goal in navigating hairpin turns over thousand-foot drops over the side of a mountain.
And yet, the five-deep division will be especially heated for Sunday’s race near Cascade.
Five-time defending champion and overall record-holder Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima will again be chased by last year’s runner-up Paul Dallenbach and veteran Rhys Millen (whose father, Rod Millen, held the race record before Tajima).
But two other challengers joined the unlimited field this year for the first time. Dave Carapetyan, who won the Pikes Peak Open division last year, joined the unlimited ranks this weekend. And Jean-Philippe Dayraut, the defending French national ice racing champion, will race Pikes Peak for the first time.
“Pikes Peak is a project that is dear to my heart since my teenage years,” Dayraut said in a release.
“It is a very extreme human challenge, where we need to show adaptability. And it is the most important race in the USA after Indianapolis.”
There’s no need to pass drivers at Pikes Peak, a time-trial style race over narrow roads to the summit. There are plenty of other challenges.
Last year, Millen finished the final stretch on two tires and no fifth gear.
“Road conditions change not within the hour, but within the minute,” Millen said in an online video by HRE Wheels. “You can leave the start line at 90 degrees and five minutes later you can have a hailstorm, then five minutes after that you can have a snowstorm.”
Sunday’s race will be the last on the current Pikes Peak setup.
Next year, the road will be entirely paved, eliminating the challenge of an upper section on gravel.
“The 90th Hill Climb will be quite different,” race director Phil Layton told the Gazette of Colorado Springs this week.
The 10-minute mark — for years the Golden goal for drivers at Pikes Peak — remains on the table. But drivers have only themselves to race.
“Of course, I would be happy to break the 10-minute mark,” Tajima said. “But my real challenge is to break my own course record.
“That’s my No. 1 goal.”
Nick Groke: 303-954-1015 or ngroke@denverpost.com
Race to the Clouds
Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
89th running of the second-oldest road race in America
Where: At Cascade, near Colorado Springs
When: 9 a.m. Sunday
