100th Anniversary (94th running) of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
Sunday, June 26, 2016
I guess this guy was just getting a feel for the track. He wasn't on it too hard, and then reported over the radio the road conditions for the bikers. There was ice near the summit at the start, so officials tried to clear that up before sending more racers out.
Acura was the main sponsor after Gran Turismo. This was the first of their three pace cars, which was followed up by... some sedan and SUV, I don't know or care what computer part number they were named after.
I'm not huge on bikes, so I didn't capture them all. Also, excuse the zoomed-out images. It's my first time taking action shots with this camera, so I was playing it safe. And to pile on one more excuse, the best spot for spectating, Devil's Playground, was full before I got there. So I don't really have any variety in angles here... next year I'll leave earlier.
Doo doo-doo. There is an awful lot of just sitting and waiting at PPIHC. Between red flags and gaps between the drivers, it was a very long day.
This guy was being red-flagged as he rounded this corner, but he ignored it and kept on it. From what I heard, the rider before him hit a guardrail.
Safety car goes up, followed shortly after by an ambulance, then a medical chopper. I believe the rider was flown to the hospital. The flagged rider is sent back down the mountain to try again.
These guys were insane to watch! The balls on that "monkey"!
This was my view for the day. George's Corner at Cove Creek. No ground-level spectating allowed here, unfortunately.
There were I think three overtakings today.
As clear a sign as any that the days of Pikes Peak being a rally course are gone.
Millen making his EV record-setting run.
All-electric NSX making its climb. It was almost hilarious watching any electric vehicle drive past - and there were a lot, including bikes - because on a count of no engine noise, they all had to use these sirens that sounded like cheap car alarms just so marshals, other drivers, etc could hear them coming.
Open-wheelers was another class I wasn't much interested in, so I didn't take many photos of them.
Mr. Escudo himself, "Monster" Tajima in an EV. I think he placed third or so; definitely not King of the Mountain anymore.
This E30 was one of the coolest cars there, imo.
V8-swapped 914.
A guy on this team told me that gray a- and c-pillar area was pretty much the only stock part of the body. The rest was carbon, some off the shelf aftermarket, some custom built.
Okay, this open-wheeler I loved. It just looks awesome, lol.
I was really not liking the new NSX. Gotta say, though, it's grown on me big time.
I kinda want to build a pickup truck for the street. Something small, for sure, like a Colorado would be cool.
See what I mean about playing it safe with the photos? Almost lost him.
Dat diffuser, though...
And the best livery of the day goes to...
So nice, I had to shoot her twice. Yeah... she was one of the many cars red-flagged and sent back to the bottom. Don't know why I took another photo of this woman, but there you have it.
Ferrari Films presents...
The noise this thing produced, I thought an uber-loud sports bike was coming up. I was pleasantly surprised.
The daddy. Wow, this was a thing to behold for me.
I remember this car from the 2010 race when there were still two long dirt sections.
One of my main reasons for going. Fast N' Loud is one of the few shows I watch... from what Aaron said today, this new season is going to be really good too!
The only semi there, and I think the only diesel. A car failure ahead of him meant he received a red flag pretty close to the summit. On his second run, I believe I heard over the radio that he slid off and got a DNF. One cool truck though.
Got the red flag here. Don't know why he shut the car off; it must have been carbureted because he had a hard time starting it back up.
Sorry, I dont know why these last few cars came out all blurry...
Went looking for the merchandise stand. I was disappointed for the second time. No t-shirt
It's okay dude, I'm with the press... with a Galaxy cam.
RCR?
The view from well below the Start line.