COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – As the full moon turned to sunrise and the clouds gripped the craggy mountain, three grueling days of qualifying runs up the 156 twisted turns along the 14,110 foot dirt and pavement road to the summit of Pikes Peak, finally delivered a lineup for the 86th running of the second oldest race in America. This tightly knit clan of racers is revved up and ready to duel on Sunday, July 20, 2008.
Over 15,000 people are expected to line the route as various classes of motorcycles, vintage cars, trucks and quads battle it out to see who will be this year’s king of the mountain and take home the $50,000 grand prize and if really lucky earn an extra $5,000 for breaking the 10-minute barrier.
Back this year is the current record holder, Nobuhiro Tajima, who’s made the trek from Japan to defend his title and with hope, return home with the extra purse and honor of having shattered the elusive ten-minute ceiling. Tajima’s run of 10:01:48 last year shaved three seconds off the 13-year previous record holder Rod Millen’s time and inspired the race organizers to offer the enhanced prize to encourage others to set their sights on doing even better this year.
Rhys Millen, the son of the former record holder, told us today that his father has restored the Toyota Celica that he drove when he captured the record. His father took the car to the Goodwood Festival of Speed last week and has been calling Rhys every day to find out how things are going at Pikes Peak where Rhys is driving a car. Rhys says, that the car is faster than before and could be a contender to take back the record.
This is a record that will eventually fall, according to long time participants, because the once all dirt and gravel road is systematically being paved to comply with environmental concerns about runoff from the mountain. Combine smooth asphalt, increased horsepower and world class drivers and you’ll get greater speed because there will be fewer time robbing, eye-popping, gasp inducing, dust cloud raising sliding turns. The mountain will be tamed and some of the real organic charm and character of the race will inevitably be lost but the courts have only ordered that asphalt be added in sections every year.
We saw there’s still plenty of slippery, dusty dirt to confound drivers and motorcycle riders while giving the crowd all the thrills and spills excitement it craves. There are no sky boxes and comfy seats for these racing fans. Instead, they start lining up the night before to stake out favorite spots along the twisty mountain route to the top. It’s not luxurious. They’re here to experience the sounds and smells of real road racing. It’s vital, pulsing, palpable excitement that stirs the soul and temporally puts aside any concerns about $4.00 per gallon gas or global warming.
The wildest vehicle with the biggest carbon footprint by far is the highly modified Freightliner semi driven by stunt driver Mike Ryan. Ryan has been known to kid about the belching cloud of black smoke that shoots out of his crowd pleasing black powerhouse by saying it kills a lot of misquitoes. But he told us today that what he really wants to do is build a hybrid diesel that will demonstrate how America's diesel powered fleet of semis can be cleaned up and fuel efficient. He even wants his pit crew to be solar powered.
We forot all about any of the social issues, and everything else, as we were allowed to enter into the ritual of the Pikes Peak tribe while being embedded with the Ducatti motorcycle team in Colorado Springs. We witnessed first hand the trials and tribulations of these motorcycle riders who come here year after year to challenge the “mountain.”
Greg Tracy, the leader of our dedicated group, developed his love of motorcycles from his father who once raced but also took the family on off road adventures. He and his brother, Gary, who’s also racing this week, were destined to take up their father’s passion. Their mother didn’t like the idea of them competing against one another so they ride in different classes but they’re still fiercely competitive.
Greg qualified first in his big bike, 1200cc class, riding the Ducatti Hypermotard and brother Gary secured the top slot in the Motorcycle Supermoto class riding a Yamaha 450. After suffering a pre-race injury that took away part of a finger, Gary, confounded some by showing up ready to ride with a titanium sheath covering his severed digit.
Up and out the door by 3:30 AM we were on our way to watch these two and a record number of entrants practice and vie for a slot in the Sunday race.
The ritual started with an onslaught on the local 7-Eleven for coffee and some thing to nibble on as we began our trek to the staging compounds which were set aside for the equipment trailers of competitors. The glow of the burgeoning moon bathed this disparate cast as they unloaded, tinkered and readied for their time on the road.
The mountain route was broken up into three chunks and each major grouping was assigned a day to run the lower paved portion that would determine their starting place in their class.
The two other days were get acquainted practice days that gave riders and drivers the opportunity to acclimate to the high altitude, low oxygen, twist and turns that would confront them on race day. It also gave them a chance to discover the limitations of their machines.
The Buell team found out that they hadn’t set up their bikes for the thin oxygen and these powerful bikes weren’t performing up to expectations. The Ducatti team got a wake up call when Tracy’s bike stalled on day three and then shut down hurtling him to the ground. Startled but not seriously hurt he restarted and headed down the mountain. The mystery was solved when the team tore into the machine’s inner workings and discovered that the battery contacts were becoming disengaged due to the bouncy road surfaces. When that happened, the bike shut down. They fixed this and Tracy’s ready for handlebar to handlebar racing.
Sunday promises to be a day of spirited competition as this international line up challenges each other and America’s mountain.
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