Live from the Mountain: Race Day!

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Race day on Pikes Peak always brings a sense of achievement. You have spent the last year preparing for this one day to come. The countless hours you have spent planning, organizing, finalizing sponsorship deals, and car building has come down to this day. You have spent the last week going non-stop with little sleep as you prepare for race day. Early practice days and late nights working on the racecar have me drained, but somehow I can always manage to get excited about getting one shot at racing up that mountain.

We arrived at our pit around 5:45 am and immediately started to unload the racecar and set up our pit. The “pits” at Pikes Peak are quite interesting. The pit stalls consist of a 8 ft wide gap between two tree’s that are marked with a paper plate stapled to a tree. They don’t work too well when 60 race teams are trying to park massive trailers and support vehicles in tiny little spots marked by random trees. One cool aspect of the pits is it gives the fans open access to walk around and see all the race cars up close and meet the drivers. After we finished setting up I was greeted by my wife and mom. It was awesome that I had their support on race day and I was thankful to have them with me.

The team started to make the last few adjustments to the car before our class was due to run. The pre-race checklist included mounting race day wheels/tires, setting tire pressures, cleaning windows and setting up the on-board camera. After everything was complete we headed to the pre-race church service and driver’s meeting. Paul Walker, of Fast and the Furious movie fame, was introduced at the drivers meeting as the Pace Car driver. Road conditions were perfect and the weather forecast was clear. Everything was good to go green! Back at the pits my driver and I had our pre-race discussion. I went though some topics that would help us achieve the best performance out of ourselves and our equipment. Topics like where to be aggressive, what to look out for and what the road would like with all of the spectators lining each section.

We started to strap in and get ready to move to the starting grid. After several course delays due to crashes, oil downs etc we were first in line starring down the green flag and the official starter. My heart beat increased as we revved the car up and exploded off the start line. I furiously started calling out each note to the driver – R5+ 150 into R4 Over Crest. The 156 corners and 12.42 miles kept us busy in car – over 150 up shifts and downshifts and 6 pages of pace notes to read out. We came into to a fast downhill section leading into Bottomless Pit (you can imagine the consequences if you go off here) and I glanced over the dash to see us hitting 102 mph into the fast right-hander. One little detail the officials should have told us at the starting line was that there was oil dry in the braking zone of this super fast section. The car got way sideways under braking and we used up all of the road and then some at the exit of the corner. Just a couple more corners and we were blasting past the checker flags at the finish line.

We made it! The car ran flawlessly all the way to the top and we had the best run of our week. It felt great that we improved each day and ultimately put in our best performance on race day.  The celebration amongst drivers on the summit began as we all traded stories and exchanged congratulations for a job well done. The camaraderie amongst drivers is awesome. We all gathered to walk down to the final hairpin to watch the unlimited drivers attempt to crack the 10 minute barrier and cheer on the remaining drivers.

Pikes Peak is a magical place. It is one of the toughest motorsports events going and it demands the utmost respect from each competitor. Everything about this event is unique and it leaves you with a new appreciation for the mountain each year. Once you experience it for the first time, as I did when I was 12 years old, it gets into your blood.

Huge thanks to Peak Performance Products, APR Performance, Suba Performance and Heuberger Subaru for all their support. These sponsors make it possible to compete and we appreciate their support! See you on Pikes Peak next year…