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Podcast Transcript | Listen to the Podcast Now

Pikes Peak International Hill Climb | August 27, 2009

 
Ben

Right.

Scott

It takes a lot more than that. So contact them early. Make sure that you know the rules and know what’s required and yeah, I’d say go for it if you can.

Ben

This – you know what? I – I went away from it, the final question we used to ask a lot, but I have to go back for it for this one. But – and don’t let me step over. Is there anything else that we should – we should let people know?

Scott

One – one more quick thing.

Ben

Yes?

Scott

Quick thing and I’ll – I’ll try to keep it brief, but we mentioned that the – the record of Pikes Peak is right now around ten minutes. Right?

Ben

Ten minutes, yeah.

Scott

Okay. Ten – it’s actually ten minutes. Hang on. I’m – I’m searching my notes, scouring my notes.

Ben

Ten minutes and -

Scott

Ten minutes, one second.

Ben

- one second.

Scott

And just hang on. Here it is. The current record for the unlimited division is ten minutes, 1.408 seconds, which was set by – and I’m gonna mess up this name – Nobuhero Tajima, who is the – the current record holder in a Suzuki XL7 Hill Climb Special. Now, that record was set in 2007 and this year there was an attempt at that record that was – that was made that didn’t – didn’t quite make it. In fact, Nobuhero, again, won this year’s competition in the unlimited division, but he didn’t break his own record. The previous record was held for 13 years. That’s how difficult this record is to break.

Ben

Geez.

Scott

And the previous record was somewhere around, I think it was like ten minutes and I thought it was around 15 seconds. I – I’ve got that wrong, but it’s somewhere around there. It’s – it’s – he broke it by about 12 or 13 seconds, something like that. So that record was held by another Millen, as a matter of fact. That was held by Rod Millen, so that 13-year record stood for – that’s a long time for it to stand.

And then, two – just two years later, for someone to say, “I’ve got a chance at breaking this record,” that’s pretty unbelievable, and it was a – an ex-British rally car cross champion. His name was Mark Renneson. And he had – and this – this will give you an idea of the cars in this unlimited series – he had a Ford Focus – what was it – a Ford Focus RS200, which is a specially – specially built vehicle for Pikes Peak. This is the only race that this car competes in, as far as I know. It may be modified from this point to race in something else.

But the car, then, had 1,150 horsepower. So it’s this unbelievably powerful car that’s just shooting up the mountain. It’s – it’s – to make it up 12.5 miles on these turns where you’re normally going ten miles per hour, it’s doing 12.5 miles in ten minutes. That’s unbelievable fast.

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