Our favorite event here at Guru Graphics has come and gone yet again – the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC). And like Dr. Suess said: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
This year was an absolute nail-biter with the winning margin being just two hundredths of a second. And shockingly, top qualifiers Jean Phillipe Dayraut and Paul Dallenbach were among several drivers who failed to finish!
When the smoke cleared among the crashes and the burned out engines, a winner, Rhys Millen, emerged with one of the best finishes ever (9 minutes, 46.16 seconds). Which makes sense since, in its 90-year history, this is the first year that Pike’s Peak Highway was fully paved.
For Millen, it was an emotional win as this race really is a matter of family honor: his father, Rod Millen, held the mountain’s speed record from 1994 through 1997. On the flip side it was a hard to swallow loss for Frenchman Romain Dumas whose time was 9:46.18 – literally the blink of an eye behind Millen.
Dumas was enraged that the race was organized by class instead of overall time and was quoted: “We spend all this money to come for one weekend and it’s not fair…I know it’s bad to speak like that of a race since I am a newcomer, but it is not fair.”
On a lighter note, third place went to Carlin Dunne, who became the first driver to break the 10-minute barrier on a motorcycle. Although this year the race was filled with a little bit of contention, overall the race was, as always, a treat for all the fans and most of the drivers alike. We look forward to next year and hope to see you all there too!
