The Harbey Colorado Travelogue II

Drag racing is the purest form of motorsport – discuss –

Part 2

So, here we are the day after Pikes Peak and the 86^th running of the International Hill Climb.

As with drag racing in part 1, my exposure to hill climbing has been minimal, apart from Shelsey Walsh and Prescott hill climbs in the UK being on my list of “must go to least once in my life“ motorsport events - oh, and looking for twisty mountain roads on the map when on holiday – and, yes, the big drop is always on the better half’s side of the car !

The Pikes Peak experience can take up the whole week. From Wednesday to Friday, competitors practice on sections of the mountain – and be in no doubt, this is not hill climbing – it is mountain climbing. The start of the 12.42 mile run is at 9,390 ft; the finish is at 14,110 ft. These days half is tarmac; half is gravel, although they are pushing on with plans to tarmac more and more of the road.

The road is open to the public every day, bar race day, and for the requisite number of dollars you too can drive up, but at clearly marked maximum speeds ... So practice has to happen early, very early, in fact so early that we did not get up to go and watch, having finally got used to the minus 7 hour time difference to the UK.

We drove up at more normal hours on Tuesday to suss out where we wanted to watch from. Glen Cove, roughly halfway has a cafe, the obligatory gift shop and other necessary facilities. You can walk up to a tarmac hairpin, down to gravel hairpins – but remember to take your time, you are at 11,000 feet and the air is considerably thinner.

We also re-watched the Ari Vatanen video (see the MWM Collective Facebook site – thanks for posting it, Dex) to get us in the mood. You don’t need me to tell you that he is a star ...

Friday night saw the Fan Fest in downtown Colorado Springs. Now I’m not one for over-hyped American hullabaloo, but I was pleasantly surprised. A good number of people, some stunt MotoX, a lot of loud “Green Day” sort of music, and quite a number of competing cars / bikes. We found Nobuhiro ‘Monster’ Tajima, the favourite for the quickest time this year and current record holder, standing by his Suzuki – had a quick chat and photo – a very quiet unassuming man.

We also found Richard Meaden – British journalist and racing driver - who was returning for his second attempt at Pikes Peak as Paul Dallenbach’s team-mate. His description of his 2007 attempt in Evo (where he then worked) was useful as we made our plans. You can find his blog at his new venture www.drivers-republic.com. Also to be found was the Lotus 23 that Bobby Unser – the Unsers are THE Pikes Peak family - drove to a class and divisional win in 1964. Having driven up Pikes Peak in our Toyota Highlander, it seemed too low, too fragile – it is a Lotus after all.

04.45 Sunday morning – the alarm goes off. To get the “Race to the Clouds” underway at 9 am, there are strict times for accessing the mountain. We arrived at Glen Cove before 7 am to find the car parking space almost full – the advice we had received was sound. A beautiful sunny morning with a fulfilled promise of fine weather all day – although just a couple of years ago they had rain and snow at the highest elevations on race day.

The local AM radio station was broadcasting from the event and available on-line– sort of Radio Le Pikes Peak – and was a useful addition to the experience. There was also streaming video apparently – so we need not miss out next year !

It was cars first, a mix of Baja type buggies, vintage (Carrera Panamericana), rally cars, drift cars and Unlimited. Highlights were Rhys Millen (of the Millen family) in his drift Pontiac Solstice in Red Bull colours executing a perfect slide round the gravel hairpin where we were watching; Paul Dallenbach’s open wheeler and Tajima of course. The bikers, including sidecars and quads made up the bigger portion of the entry and were started five at a time leading to some good battles as they passed us.

Oh, and then we finished with the trucks ... not Craftsman Trucks (pick ups to the Brits) but proper big rigs – without trailers though ! The faster one set a better time through the speed trap than many of the bikes !

After every competitor has made it up the hill - or retired along the way – they all parade back down together. At Glen Cove, spectators line the road to give high fives to the riders and drivers as they pass – a nice touch. Not everyone did make it, we had 14 red flags during the day leading to some long gaps in action and a couple of hospital trips for competitors.

We were also teased with the possibility of a sub 10 minute run from Tajima – but the weather was too dry and hot and some of the work preparatory to laying tarmac on the upper section seemed to have slowed things down there as well – never fear though, to see cars sliding round a fast uphill gravel hairpin is no bad thing !

Now, to return to the original premise – that drag racing is the purest form of motorsport. Firstly what about Pikes Peak ? It has history on its side, it is against the clock and fellow competitors, but as they said on the radio coverage, this year the winner was the mountain. We came expecting Tajima to better last year’s 10 mins 01.408 secs and get below the magic barrier, but he failed by 18 seconds – although he did beat everyone else by a huge margin !

I’m not sure there is a purest form of motorsport – each to his or her own – every variety relies to a greater or lesser extent on external factors, the weather, the vehicle preparation, the driver’s state of mind on the day, fellow competitors sometimes.

Perhaps the purest form of motorsport has 1 hp vehicles - that is 1 human power – the human body ? It’s a bit like asking who was the greatest Grand Prix driver –the answer, of course, is Jim Clark – in my humble opinion ...

The best advice is to enjoy your motorsport – whether watching or taking part ! We certainly intend to return to NHRA and Pikes Peak one day – perhaps when the latter is all tarmac – now that will be quick ! In the meantime, where is that Santa Pod fixture list, oh and the European Hill climb Championship calendar for 2009 ... ?

David Harbey

Footnote #1 – I have posted a few photos to illustrate the above on the Collective Facebook site

Footnote #2 -I should acknowledge the huge and willing contribution of my Mrs H. Madeline is a wonderful woman with great forbearance and fortitude who I hope one day to take to V8 Supercars at Bathurst, Indianapolis 500, WRC in Corsica, Monaco Historic GP and many other events !