Updated 6/30/2015: Rhys Millen’s race report
Crushing the nearest competitor by more than 25 seconds, Rhys Millen scores an overall win at Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in an all-electric car with a winning time of 9:07.222. You would think that a former PPIHC winner and record holder would be ecstatic with the win and setting the fastest time in an all-electric car, but Millen was actually disappointed with his result because he knew the car was capable of finishing in the 8-minute range.
Millen came to Pikes Peak armed with a one-megawatt electric car called the eO PP03 that was developed in Latvia and is one of two entries in the Electric-Modified class this year. The all-electric racer uses a 50-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack to power six electric motors that can muscle up a peak 1,367 horsepower. Drive eO, the company responsible for development, built the controllers in-house and uses a unique motor layout to keep the car as light as possible. Part way up the mountain course, the Drive eO PP03 lost power to its rear motors, making the car less powerful and causing it to understeer everywhere.
Despite the mechanical problems, Millen’s finishing time is now the best finish at PPIHC for an all-electric car. The previous record of 9:08.188 was set by Greg Tracy driving a Mitsubishi Evolution III. That record time placed him first in the Electric-Modified class and 2nd overall in 2014.
Drivers have been predicting that all-electric cars will soon dominate the course. Electric motors aren’t adversely affected by the high altitude and it’s hard to beat the almost instantaneous torque response all the way up the mountain. This year’s two Electric-Modified entries finished one and two overall, with second place going to Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima driving 1.1 megawatt (1,475 hp) Team APEV Rimac E-Runner Concept_One. Paul Dallenbach, driving in PPC-Open Wheel class took third with a time of 9:36.496. This is the first time in the event’s 93 year history that an EV has set an overall winning time over internal-combustion race cars.
Here is Andre giving us a post-race report from the top of the mountain. Congratulations to all the competitors who made it to the top!