The 100th anniversary Pikes Peak International Hill Climb challenge recently finished, with French racing driver Romain Dumas taking the top spot with a time of 8’51.445 behind the wheel of the Norma M20 RD (#30) in the Unlimited class.
Not only did Dumas break his 2014 record – a 9’05.801, also using a Norma M20 chassis – but he was also one of only two competitors this year to clear the 12.42 mile-long point-to-point course under 9 minutes, an achievement worthy of applause on its own. This victory also lands only a week after Dumas successfully completed the demanding and memorable 24 Hours of Le Mans race with his team Porsche scoring 1st position in-class and overall. Dumas told Autoweek that ”it has been a dream to win both of these races, and now it has come true.”
Coincidentally, this year’s meeting at the Peak hosted 100 participants, divided into 65 cars and 35 bikes. While there are numerous classes for drivers to slot into, the Electric Division proved to be very successful once again, taking three spots within the top five. Driving behind the wheel of the eO PP100 (#67), 2015 Pikes Peak winner Rhys Millen was the closest challenger to Dumas, closing out the weekend 2nd with a sub-9 minute run of 8’57.118. Not far away was Japanese driver Tetsuya Yamano who challenged the course with Acura’s 4-motor EV concept (#260). Although he didn’t manage to finish the run within 9 minutes, he set an impressive time of 9’06.015, settling at 2nd position in the Electric class and 3rd overall.
Another driver readers should be familiar with is 9-time Pikes Peak Winner Nobuhiro Tajima, also known as ‘Monster Tajima’. Setting a run of 9’51.978 with the E-Runner Concept_One (#1) was enough to award Tajima the 3rd position in-class and 5th overall. Tajima also couldn’t break his last record – set in 2011 with a Suzuki SX4 – missing it by slightly more than a half second.
GTPlanet previously reported on two brand new Acura NSX models that would appear at Pikes Peak this year. The Robinson brothers were in charge of bringing these two cars across the finish line and they did it with very different results. Nick’s NSX (#173) participated in the Time Attack 2 class and finished 1st there (20th overall) with a time of 10’28.820. His brother James’ NSX (#902) was part of the slower Time Attack 1 class. By clearing the course in 12’58.402, he ranked 13th in class and 75th overall.
Although we previously mentioned Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi would be joining the competition at 2016 Pikes Peak challenge, Yamauchi did not participate. Instead, he was part of the safety car crew.
Be sure to check the official results, entry list and official website for more information on every participator. See you next year at the Peak!
See more articles on Acura NSX, Kazunori Yamauchi, Pikes Peak, and Polyphony Digital.
Yes
Please kazu, it s an awesome track, please in the new gt sport?
I’ll take two of the Tajima machines please, with a side of bacon!
He is on a hot streak!
To be honest I can’t find any reason Kaz racing near those death-drops.
Anyway, nice to see him at the location. Maybe we will see P.P. in GT in the near future..