Officials shortened this year’s run due to poor weather conditions.
Even with troublesome weather over the weekend, Robin Shute and purpose-built, turbocharged Honda-powered Wolf GB08 TSC-LT took the overall win at the 99th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Snow and ice cut three miles off the usual 12.42-mile course, but that didn’t stop Shute and the 51 other drivers putting on what is one of the greatest motorsports events of the whole year. Competing in the Unlimited category, Shute’s 5 minute, 55.246 second time was 36 seconds ahead of Romain Dumas — the four-time champion and 2018 winner — who took second.
Shute won the 2019 title with the same 600 horsepower car, though this time the British driver surprised even himself with the staggeringly quick run, as the Colorado Springs Gazette notes. “It was actually bonkers. Despite the weather, I thought the hill was running pretty fast,” he said. Over this year’s 9-mile run, he clocked an average speed of 94.143 mph. Dumas, for his part, finished in 6:31.914 in his 2019 Porsche GT2 RS Clubsport in the Time Attack 1 category.
Another major time out of this year’s race is Unplugged Performance’s Tesla Model S, piloted by pro driver Randy Pobst. He took the win in the Exhibition class, with a time of 6:57.220. Pobst posted a video of his run to his YouTube channel, which is definitely a good watch. Even without the Plaid’s signature steering yoke — not exactly what you’d want in this sort of situation — the Model S once again proved its chops in this year’s hill climb run.
Rounding out the top times
Paul Dallenbach, a Colorado native and three-time champion, finished third overall this year with a time of 6:35.663. Two-time champ Rhys Millen was another name to watch, particularly with his hugely powerful Bentley Continental GT3 racer. However, he lost boost during the run and fell back behind Dumas, finishing fourth overall. His time dropped off by more than 20 seconds, though he only finished just behind Dallenbach with a 6:36.281 time.
With this year’s hill climb in the books, we’re looking forward to next year’s 100th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
