2010 Pikes Peak Int'l Hill Climb: Race Day Stories and Photos

- July 02, 2010

Wrapping up all the race day stories from almost a week ago. Still catching up on sleep and smiling about the fun we had.

So this is my unofficial race report, as seen from the Devil's Playground:

Mockett/Fuentes broke the course record for Vintage Modified, smashed it by 51 seconds. Total time was 13:05. 1st place in class, of course, driving flawlessly as usual. Always fantastic to watch those two race.

Our Thierry in the blue fastback got 2nd in Vintage Race Car class at 13:42 after Keith Davidson in the Falcon, who won the class last year as well.

Thierry and Donner - the genuine smile of thanks to Todd from a happy racecar driver.

Our Doug Allen in the white fastback did a little spin in the dirt on the way up, recovered and made a strong finish but the spin put him 20-30 sec behind where he should have been. Final results were 8th place but still faster than he ran in 2008.

Doug Allen making his way up the last W's in the Gypsy Wind.

Tom Kreger and his copilota in the red original panam Lincoln finished strong - all good and happy!

Tom in the parade on the way down.

The Apple Farmer had a great run, Richard was absolutely ripping through the W's in his Volvo from our vantage point on the Devil's Playground.

Richard, the speedy Apple Famer.

Gunter and Barbara in their brand new beautiful satin red Studie ran in the 17 min range, but they finished and had fun. When I told Barbara I got some photos of them in the W's, she laughed and said, "I got photos of you up there too!" What?? She was taking pictures of the crowd on her way up. Gotta love that.

Gunter & Barbara - taking a picutre of me taking a picture of her.

The navy blue Lister 700+hp machine from the LCP with "NTLEGAL" license plates was having problems and running about 20mph through the W's but did finish.

My little buddy, Breck, we were watching the race together. He likes Mustangs. He and his 6 siblings were recently rescued from a shelter and evidently when he got his new owners he said, "Take me to Pikes Peak!"

The reigning Monster did not break the 10 min mark - he did a bad jig at the Devil's Playground, nearly went airborne but still finished 1st overall at 10:11. He did "mention spectators in the road" when he was interviewed at the top. Jeremy, our friend from Georgetown, TX, was standing on the side of the road when this happened and caught the entire episode on film.

The spot where the Monster did his jig - you can still see some tracks on the right (click on the photo to enlarge).

It seems in the transition from pavement to dirt at the top of Devil's, the dirt surface is lower than the pavement and this caused the front end of the Monster car to catch air underneath it and lift it up, just like one of those freaky fast hydroboats. He jigged to the right, shaved off a handful of orange cones and sprayed gravel to the parking lot below, breaking some windshields and car windows. He then jigged left and somehow got the car back on the ground and under control. Wow. And he still won.

Jeff Zwart in the white Porsche GT3 Cup car looked AMAZING!!!! He ran an 11:31, handily winning the 2WD Time Attack class, and even beating Clint Vahsholtz in the Super Stock class by a hair!

Mike Ryan, the Hollywood stuntman in the Freightliner, was the last to run and what a crowd-pleaser he is! Todd and I scurried about looking for a "safe" place to watch and decided nowhere was safe when that semi is flying at you. His 13:03 finish was unbelievable.

Mike Ryan, the grand finale, doing his thing!

Up at almost 13,000 feet we had sun, rain, hail, cold, wind and snow - typical high country Colorado day. And several people saw a bright disc-shaped UFO - I saw the picture on someone's camera - huh.