PPIHC: Motorcycles Shatter 10 Minute Barrier at Pikes Peak

With the road to the summit of Pikes Peak fully-paved now, riders not only had to contend with learning the 156 corners that comprise the race to the clouds, but they also had to learn the new asphalt sections that were paved after last year’s race. Getting three days of practice and sunshine on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb course, on Saturday the weather hit the reset button, bringing rain down on the mountain, which made the road very green for racing the next day.

The sun returned for Sunday’s set of races though, with the motorcycles leading the charge up Pikes Peak. As with the previous years, the talk of class records falling was again high on the discussion list, which is unsurprising since Pikes Peak has added new pavement sections each year to the course. Though, with the asphalt now going all the way to the summit, the big question this year was by what margin the records would fall, and in the motorcycle category, whether a new class of motorcycle would dominate the mountain.

With most of the field still comprised of supermoto bikes and a handful of flat trackers, the 1205cc class showed the most diversity in entries, with BMW, Ducati, Harley-Davidson, and KTM all represented. The PPIHC crew isn’t keen on full-fledged sport bikes racing on the mountain, relegating those entries that did show up into the exhibition class. Though many thought the sport bikers would dominate this year, it was the adventure-touring bikes in 1205cc class that would lay siege to Pikes Peak, in more than impressive style.

Shattering the 10 minute lap barrier to the summit, Carlin Dunne made a repeat victory and course record with his 9’52.819 run on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S Pikes Peak race bike. With Dunne’s transponder failing to check in a final time at the finish, the entire paddock had to sit and wait for his result before a winner could be declared, since Greg Tracy also put in an astounding sub-10 minute run as well, with a 9’58.262 lap to the top — doing so with a vertebrae that he fractured the previous Sunday, shooting a commercial for Ducati & Audi.

With the motorcycles getting fairly good weather on the mountain, the rest of the classes were not as fortunate. With rain, hail, and snow reported at the summit, the car classes had to contend with the changing conditions, and a bevy of red flags, before they could get all their races completed. One of the longest hill climbs in duration ever at Pikes Peak, the day saw Rhys Millen set an outright course record of 9’46.164 in the Time Attack class on his Hyundai drift car.

Of course, the real feat is Dunne and Tracy’s times, which were the third and fourth fastest overall for the day, respectively — on fairly stock adventure-touring machines, no less.

2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Race Results:

Source: PPIHC; Photo: © 2012 Jensen Beeler / Asphalt & Rubber – Creative Commons – Attribution 3.0